Kanban (Project) Board Overview

The board view displays all your project tasks across custom columns, also known as statuses. Tasks can be dragged from column to column, indicating that the task status has changed. The kanban board is ideal for defining business processes and project workflows. 

Like the list view, users can filter by assignee, priority, due date and more to find the tasks that need to be executed. Because this is a project view, any task made in this view will appear in all other views, as well as task updates made on task cards.

Kanban Board Summary: Benefits and Functions

Our board view is flexible and customizable, yet powerfully equipped with in-depth task data and no code automation. 

Kanban Board Introductory Video

Learn more about the kanban board view in the video below.

How to Create a Kanban Board

Open an existing project and navigate to the board or create a new project. The default columns on the board are "to do," "doing" and "done," which is a great place to start if you're new to board workflows. Add and customize as many columns as you'd like within a particular project.

Tip: Create a custom workflow in conjunction with our automation feature by clicking the small gear icon on the top right and clicking “Workflow.” You can edit your board workflow at any time to fit your process.

Entering Tasks into the Kanban Board

If you've added tasks in another view, you'll see all tasks listed under the first column on the left (unless you set up a custom workflow).

• Start creating new tasks by clicking the add a task button at the bottom of any column.
• Create all tasks under the first column and move them into the appropriate columns as your project progresses.

Once you've entered your tasks and data on the task card, you can:

• Start moving tasks to the right as the project progresses
• Update progress and @ mention your team to ensure everyone is on the same page throughout the project

If team members prefer to see a project on the Gantt or list, they can toggle to another view to make updates, and data will automatically populate the board.

Customizing the Board View

Click the Filter and Sort button at the top right of the board to customize the view. There are three options inside this menu:

Filter

Choose a subset of tasks you want to show on the board so you can focus on what matters most today. Options include:

• Task name
• Assignees
• Due date
• Progress
• Priority
• Tags
• Task type (task, summary, milestone)

Show

Choose which field you'd like to see on the task cards so you can see the wood for the trees. Options include:

• Done
• Due date
• Assignee
• Priority
• Progress
• Attachments
• Comments
• Subtasks
• To Dos
• Hours

Sort

You can order your board columns automatically, in addition to the traditional drag-and-drop sorting. Sorting options include:

• Drag & drop → Free-form, manual sorting
• Due date → Tasks due soon are brought to the top so you can focus on deadlines
• Progress → Focus on in-progress tasks and get them over the line
• Resource → See who's overloaded or which tasks are under-resourced
• WBS → Matches the Gantt structure

Click the Filter & Sort button at the top right of any project board and click the Sort column, where you can change the sort order:

Board Progress

You can see how each column on your board is tracking at a glance. The Board Progress indicators make it easy to spot where work is piling up or nearing completion.

Each column header now shows:

• Task count → The total number of tasks in the column.
• Hours summary → If your team uses Planned Effort or Actual Effort, you’ll see these totals beside the column name (for example, 12 / 16 hrs). If actuals exceed planned, the actual value turns orange to flag an overrun.
• Progress bar → A visual indicator showing the average % complete of all tasks in the column. Hover over it to see the exact percentage.

The indicators update live as your team move or update tasks, so your board progress always reflects the latest work. Summary tasks are excluded from these calculations to keep totals accurate. If you prefer a cleaner view, you can toggle Column Progress off in the Filter & Sort menu.

This gives teams a quick, visual way to understand progress without needing to open each task — especially useful for managers monitoring multiple columns or stages.

Customizing the Task Card

Once the task is entered, add task a due date, assign the task to a team member, add a priority level and other information such as a description. Here’s a description of each of the fields available on the task card.

• Progress → The progress of the task: not started, started, halfway done, almost done and done. On the Gantt, this is 0%, 25%, 50%,75% and 100%. It is important to keep the progress updated because many of the dashboard widgets are populated by task progress.
• Assigned To → The team member assigned to the task. Once assigned, the user will see the task in their notifications and on the team page. If you are on the Business edition, you can use the workload chart to see tasks that are completed, remaining and overdue by team member.
• Description → You can enter a description of the task in the text box. You can even add formatting to the description.
• Files → You can add as many files as you want to the task. If you add a file in a comment, it will appear under files. You can also drag and drop files for easy uploading.
• Priority → You can change the priority level on a task from the default of none to very low, low, medium, high, very high and critical.
• Due Date → This is the date the task is due. In the Gantt, the due date is displayed as planned finish date.
• Hours → You can log hours here without navigating to the Gantt or timesheet. If you log hours in the Gantt, timesheet, list or home view, you'll see them displayed here, so there's no need to enter hours multiple times.
• Tags → Tag tasks to organize and filter by tag. There are many ways to use tags; categorize a type of task, such as a bug, or a department responsible for the task, like IT.
• To-Do List → Create a helpful to-do list for specific items that relate to the task. To start a to-do list, start entering tasks and press enter after each task.
• Other Dates → Planned Start and Finish Dates are the dates that the task is estimated to start and end. Actual Start and Finish Dates refer to the dates that the task started and ended.
• Hours and Cost → View planned and actual hours and planned and actual costs in the task card. If you cannot see the costs fields in the task card, you don't have the necessary permissions to view this.
• Status →   Status represents the board column where the task is currently located.

Summary Tasks on the Board

A summary task is indicated on the Board by a triangle in the top left of the task Board card. If it's a summary task, you can see the subtasks on the open task card.

Once selected, the summary task card will display the total progress, along with the progress for each subtask. Subtasks that are also milestone tasks will be indicated with a diamond icon next to the open task icon, and progress, actual hours, due date and assignees will be noted under each subtask name.

If you filter by summary tasks on the filter, all non-summary tasks will be filtered out, so you can see your summary tasks.

Personal Kanban Boards

Personal kanban boards are separate from project-specific kanban boards. The columns in this personal kanban board view differ from the project-specific columns to help team members organize their tasks across projects in a way that suits them.

To access your personal board, navigate to the home view and click "Board" on the top menu. Feel free to edit or add columns to this board as needed, and no project data will be impacted.

Note: Don't need personal kanban boards? There is a security option to hide them from the menu. Anyone with permission to "edit role security settings" can hide personal kanban boards.

Elevated Board Features with Upgraded Plans

Business and Enterprise customers can also use the board with custom workflows and automation. Using both custom workflows and automation can help streamline manual, repetitive work.

Custom workflows allow users to set task rules and specific approvers before tasks move from one board column to the next.

Automation uses simple "when" and "then" language to define triggers and actions within one workflow. Head to our custom workflows and automation pages for additional information!