An international non-profit with staff across multiple regions was managing all communications work through email requests and informal conversations. Requests were lost, duplicated, or forgotten. Leadership had no visibility into the full portfolio of work. We built a 5-board interconnected monday.com system with 22+ automations, a single intake form, and an executive portfolio dashboard in 3 weeks. Every request now enters through one form and is automatically routed to the right team.
The challenge
The communications team was a shared resource serving the entire organisation. They handled everything from quick graphic updates to multi-month campaign launches. But there was no system for tracking what was requested, what was in progress, or what was blocked.
No single point of entry. Staff submitted requests via email, Slack, in-person conversations, and calendar invites. One person acted as an informal bottleneck, routing everything through memory and email threads. Requests were regularly lost or duplicated.
No visibility for leadership. There was no way to see the full portfolio of communications work across projects and campaigns. Leadership had to ask individuals for status updates, which meant the information was always out of date by the time it was compiled.
No distinction between quick tasks and complex projects. A simple graphic request sat in the same mental queue as a multi-month campaign launch. Prioritisation was informal and inconsistent.
No audit trail. When something fell through the cracks, there was no record of who requested it, when, or how it was triaged.
The communications director recognised that the team was spending more time coordinating work than doing work. They needed a system that could handle the full range of requests with clear ownership and visibility at every level.
What we built
Over 3 weeks, we delivered a 5-board interconnected system with automated routing, status-driven group management, and an executive portfolio dashboard.
Centralised intake and triage board
A public WorkForm serves as the single entry point for all requests. Every request, whether from internal staff or external stakeholders, enters through one form. Items are never moved or deleted from Intake; it serves as a permanent audit trail. Triage staff classify by type (Small Task, Project Task, New Project, Campaign), set priority, and assign ownership.
Automated routing
22+ native monday.com automations handle the coordination. When a triaged item's status changes to "Assigned", the system automatically creates a new item on the appropriate destination board (Small Tasks or Campaigns) and links it back to the original Intake record via Connect Board columns. Mirror columns on Intake show the live status of routed items, so triage staff never need to leave their board to check progress.
Small tasks board
For quick operational work (under 2 days). Includes time tracking, effort estimation, and category tagging. Status-driven group automations move items through To Do, In Progress, and Done.
Project template board
For complex, multi-deliverable work. Standardised structure with phases (Planning, Design, Development, Testing, Launch, Post-Launch), connected to the Campaigns board for cross-referencing, and linked to the Portfolio for roll-up reporting. Duplicated for each new project.
Campaigns board
Marketing-specific metadata: channel (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Ads, Email), region (Global, LATAM, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, North America), target audience, campaign goal, and budget tracking. Two-way connections to related projects.
Portfolio overview dashboard
Executive visibility across all active work. Each project and campaign is represented by a single item. Mirror columns aggregate task statuses from connected boards into battery/progress bars, giving leadership an instant visual health check without asking anyone for updates. When a new project board is duplicated from the template, monday.com automatically includes it in the Portfolio's mirror aggregation, so no manual reconfiguration is needed.
The technical approach
The most important design decision was the "items never leave Intake" pattern. In previous attempts at work management, the team had lost track of requests by moving items between boards. By keeping every request permanently on the Intake board and using Connect + Mirror columns for live status, we preserved a complete audit trail while maintaining real-time visibility.
This architecture also makes reporting straightforward. Leadership can pull a filtered view of Intake by date range, requester, type, or status to answer questions like "how many requests came in this quarter?" or "what is the average turnaround time for small tasks?" without any custom reporting setup.
The automation count (22+) is high for a system this size, but each automation does one specific thing: route a classified item, update a mirror, move an item between groups, or send a notification. Keeping automations simple and single-purpose makes them easy to debug and modify.
The results
Single entry point: All work requests now enter through one form. No more lost requests, no more email archaeology.
Automated routing: Triage staff classify and assign; the system handles creation and linking on destination boards. Manual routing eliminated.
Audit trail: Every request has a permanent record: who submitted it, when, how it was classified, where it was routed, and its current status.
Executive visibility: Leadership can see the full portfolio of active projects and campaigns with aggregated health indicators in one view. Status meetings replaced by dashboard checks.
Team clarity: Each team member sees only their assigned work on the relevant board, with clear priorities and deadlines.
Key takeaways
The intake pattern solves the "lost request" problem permanently. A single form with automated routing and permanent audit trail means nothing falls through the cracks. This pattern works for any shared service team: communications, design, IT, HR, legal.
Mirror columns are the key to portfolio visibility. By connecting boards via Connect columns and aggregating status via Mirror columns, leadership gets real-time health checks without anyone manually updating a spreadsheet or compiling a status report.
22 simple automations beat 5 complex ones. Each automation does one thing. When something needs to change, the team can find and modify the relevant automation without understanding a complex chain of dependencies.
If your organisation runs a shared service team that handles requests from across the business, the same architecture applies. Our CRM and workflow design service builds monday.com systems around how your team actually works.
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