monday.com Button Click Update Status on Another Board

Automation Pain Point #4

You need a button that updates a status column on a different board. Click “Mark Complete” on the Booking board, and the corresponding item on the Delivery board changes status to “Ready to Ship”. No manual board-hopping, no copy-pasting item names.

Monday.com’s button column can trigger automations, and cross-board automations do exist. But here’s the problem: cross-board automations are designed to create items, move items, or mirror data — not to selectively update a status column on an existing linked item.

The result? Teams build fragile workarounds involving Connect Boards columns, Mirror columns, and intermediate status columns that cascade changes. Or they give up and manually update both boards.

This article explains why monday.com’s cross-board architecture makes this harder than it should be, and how BoardBridge handles button-triggered cross-board status updates.

Table of Contents

• The Problem: Cross-Board Automations Are Create/Move-Focused
• What Users Need vs. What Monday.com Offers
• Real-World Example: Sales to Delivery Handoff
• The Monday.com Workaround (Connect Boards + Mirror Columns)
• How BoardBridge Handles Cross-Board Status Updates
• Multiple Board Updates from One Button
• When Native Cross-Board Automations Are Enough
• FAQ

The Problem: Cross-Board Automations Are Create/Move-Focused

Monday.com’s cross-board automation recipes are built around creating new items or moving existing items from one board to another. The automation templates you see in the builder reflect this:

• “When status changes, create an item on another board”
• “When item is created, move it to another board”
• “When button is clicked, duplicate this item to another board”

What’s Missing

There’s no native recipe for:

“When button is clicked on Board A, update the status column on a linked item on Board B”

You can create items. You can move items. You can mirror column values (read-only). But selectively updating a specific column on a linked item requires stitching together Connect Boards columns, Mirror columns, and automation triggers in ways that break easily.

Community Evidence

From a forum thread titled “Create item in another board — location column not copying” [Source: https://community.monday.com/t/create-item-in-another-board-automation-and-location-column-not-copying/112470]:

“When I try to create an item via automation from 1 board to a second board, location columns on the source board don’t appear to be supported to copy to the second board.” — julDH14 (Julie H), April 1, 2025

Monday.com staff did not respond. A community ambassador asked for clarification but provided no solution.

From the official cross-board automations documentation [Source: https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011393900-Cross-board-automations]:

Unsupported column types in cross-board item creation:

• Dependency
• Link to Item
• Time Tracking
• Location (as confirmed by users)
• Formula, Mirror (read-only by design)
• Connect Boards (can’t be written via automation)

Even when you CAN create items cross-board, many column types don’t transfer. And updating an existing item on another board is not part of the automation recipe library at all.

What Users Need vs. What Monday.com Offers

What Users Need

Scenario	Desired Workflow
Sales handoff	Click “Mark Won” on CRM board → Delivery board item status changes to “In Queue”
Project milestone	Click “Design Approved” on Design board → Development board item status changes to “Ready to Build”
Vendor confirmation	Click “Vendor Confirmed” on Booking board → Logistics board item status changes to “Confirmed”
Multi-board workflows	Update status on 3 boards from one button (CRM, Delivery, Finance)

What Monday.com Offers

Feature	Support
Cross-board item creation	✅ Supported, but many column types don’t transfer
Cross-board item move	✅ Supported, but moves the entire item (doesn’t leave a copy)
Cross-board status update via automation	❌ No native recipe for “update status on linked item”
Connect Boards + Mirror columns	⚠️ Workaround exists but fragile and read-only on the mirrored side
Button-triggered cross-board updates	❌ Not natively supported

From a forum thread titled “Automation by column change does not work if the change was by automation” [Source: https://community.monday.com/t/automation-by-column-change-does-not-work-if-the-change-was-by-automation/69289]:

“When an item is created in the board NEW an automation is activated to connect the item…On the board CURRENT there is an automation that suppose to be activated by column change…It does not get activated by the change that happens with the automation.” — elromlu, October 26, 2023

Monday.com Implementation Consultant GiannisKoukounas confirmed: automations do not trigger other automations. This means even if you set up a chain of cross-board triggers, they won’t cascade as expected.

Real-World Example: Sales to Delivery Handoff

Here’s a workflow from a client running a SaaS product delivery process.

The Scenario

The company uses two boards:

1. CRM Board — tracks deals through the sales pipeline
2. Delivery Board — tracks onboarding and implementation for won deals

When a deal closes on the CRM board:

• The sales rep clicks a “Mark Won” button
• The system creates a corresponding item on the Delivery Board (company name, contact info, package type, start date)
• The Delivery Board item’s status should automatically change to “In Queue”

Later, when the delivery team assigns an onboarding specialist:

• The delivery manager clicks an “Assign Specialist” button on the Delivery Board
• The CRM Board item’s status should update to “Onboarding Assigned” (so sales reps can see progress)

This is bidirectional cross-board status sync — changes on Board A reflect on Board B, and vice versa.

The Monday.com Approach (Workaround)

Here’s the fragile workaround teams build:

Step 1: Connect the boards

• Add a Connect Boards column on the CRM board linking to the Delivery board
• When the “Mark Won” button is clicked, an automation creates the Delivery Board item and populates the Connect Boards link

Step 2: Mirror the status

• Add a Mirror column on the CRM board to show the Delivery Board’s status
• This is read-only — you can see the Delivery Board status, but you can’t change it from the CRM board

Step 3: Create intermediate status columns

• Add a “Delivery Status Trigger” status column on the CRM board
• Set up an automation: When “Delivery Status Trigger” changes to “In Queue”, update the Mirror source item’s status on the Delivery Board to “In Queue”

Problems:

• Mirror columns are read-only — you can’t directly update the Delivery Board status from the CRM board
• Automations don’t trigger other automations — changing the Mirror column via automation won’t trigger the Delivery Board automation
• Column explosion — you end up with “real” status columns and “trigger” status columns cluttering both boards
• Manual sync required — when something breaks (and it will), someone has to manually update both boards

The BoardBridge Approach

Step 1: Link the boards

• Same as monday.com — use a Connect Boards column or store the Delivery Board item ID in a text column

Step 2: Configure the button

• Button label: “Mark Won”
• Actions:

1. Create item on Delivery Board (with mapped column values from CRM)
2. Store the new Delivery Board item ID in a “Delivery Item ID” column on the CRM board
3. Update the Delivery Board item’s status to “In Queue”
4. Update the CRM Board item’s status to “Won – Delivery Queued”
5. Send an email notification to the delivery team

When clicked:

• All 5 actions execute sequentially
• Both boards update in one click
• No Mirror columns, no intermediate triggers, no manual sync

Later, when the delivery manager clicks “Assign Specialist” on the Delivery Board:

• BoardBridge reads the “CRM Item ID” column (which was populated during the initial cross-board creation)
• Updates the CRM Board item’s status to “Onboarding Assigned”
• Sends a notification to the sales rep

Result: Bidirectional status sync with zero manual intervention.

The Monday.com Workaround (Connect Boards + Mirror Columns)

If you’re not using BoardBridge, here’s the most reliable monday.com-native workaround:

Setup

On the CRM Board:

1. Add a Connect Boards column linking to the Delivery Board
2. Add a Mirror column showing the Delivery Board’s status (read-only)
3. Add a Status column for your own CRM workflow stages

On the Delivery Board:

1. Add a Connect Boards column linking back to the CRM Board (bidirectional link)
2. Add a Mirror column showing the CRM Board’s status (read-only)
3. Add a Status column for delivery workflow stages

Automation 1: CRM → Delivery (Create Item)

Trigger: When CRM status changes to “Won” Action: Create an item on the Delivery Board with:

• Item name from CRM
• Contact info from CRM
• Package type from CRM
• Connect Boards link back to the CRM item

Limitation: You can’t automatically set the Delivery Board status to “In Queue” in this automation — the “create item” action doesn’t support setting status on creation. You’d need a second automation on the Delivery Board: “When item is created, change status to ‘In Queue’.”

Automation 2: Delivery → CRM (Manual Sync)

Trigger: When Delivery status changes to “Specialist Assigned” Action: ??? There is no native action to update the linked CRM item’s status

Your options:

• Manual update — someone opens the CRM board and changes the status
• Third-party integration (Make.com, Zapier) — watches Delivery Board for status changes and updates CRM Board via API
• Mirror column only — the CRM board shows a read-only Mirror of the Delivery status, but it’s not the “real” CRM status column

None of these are clean.

How BoardBridge Handles Cross-Board Status Updates

BoardBridge automations can read from and write to multiple boards in a single workflow.

How It Works

Step 1: Store the link

• When an item is created on Board B from a button click on Board A, BoardBridge stores Board B’s item ID in a column on Board A (e.g., “Delivery Item ID”)

Step 2: Reference the link in future actions

• When another button is clicked on Board A, BoardBridge reads the “Delivery Item ID” column, looks up that item on Board B, and updates its status

Step 3: Bidirectional sync

• The same logic works in reverse — buttons on Board B can update statuses on Board A by reading the “CRM Item ID” column

Example Configuration

Button on CRM Board: “Mark Won”

Actions:

1. Create item on Delivery Board

• Map: CRM “Company Name” → Delivery “Company Name”
• Map: CRM “Contact Email” → Delivery “Contact Email”
• Map: CRM “Package Type” → Delivery “Package Type”

1. Store the newly created Delivery Board item ID in CRM “Delivery Item ID” column
2. Update Delivery Board item status to “In Queue”
3. Update CRM Board item status to “Won – Delivery Queued”
4. Send email to delivery team

Button on Delivery Board: “Assign Specialist”

Actions:

1. Read the “CRM Item ID” column (populated when the Delivery item was created)
2. Update the linked CRM Board item’s status to “Onboarding Assigned”
3. Update Delivery Board item status to “In Progress”
4. Send email to the sales rep

Both workflows execute in one click, no manual board-hopping required.

Multiple Board Updates from One Button

Some workflows require updating three or more boards from one button click.

Example: Invoice Approval

When the finance manager clicks “Approve Invoice” on the Invoice board:

Board updates:

1. Invoice Board → Status changes to “Approved”
2. Project Board → Status changes to “Payment Approved”
3. Accounting Board → Status changes to “Ready to Process”

Additional actions:

1. Send email to the client: “Your invoice has been approved”
2. Send email to accounting team: “Invoice #12345 ready for processing”

With native monday.com automations, you’d need:

• One automation per board (3 total)
• Manual coordination to ensure all three run
• Hope that automations trigger each other (they don’t — see earlier section)

With BoardBridge:

• One button
• One automation with 5 sequential actions
• One click

When Native Cross-Board Automations Are Enough

Monday.com’s cross-board automations work perfectly fine when:

• You need to create a new item on another board (e.g., sales deal → delivery project)
• You’re okay moving the entire item to another board (not leaving a copy)
• You don’t need bidirectional status sync
• You’re fine with read-only Mirror columns showing cross-board data
• Your workflow is one-directional (Board A → Board B, never B → A)

For these cases, stick with native monday.com automations.

What This Means for Your Workflows

Cross-board status updates eliminate manual board-hopping. Instead of opening the Delivery board, searching for the right item, and manually changing its status after a CRM button click, the system does it automatically in one click. Both boards stay in sync, your team sees accurate status everywhere, and you spend zero time on manual updates.

For teams running multi-board workflows (sales → delivery → finance, booking → logistics → production, design → development → QA), this is the difference between automation that feels fragile and automation that just works.

BoardBridge — Form & Workflow Automation for monday.com handles cross-board status updates out of the box. If your workflows span multiple boards and you’re tired of Mirror column workarounds, it might be worth a look.

Meta Description

Update status columns on another monday.com board with one button click. Sync status across multiple boards without Mirror columns or workarounds.

Related Articles

For more cross-board automation:

• Status Changes Create Items on Another Board (with Compound Conditions)
• Cross-Board Data Transfer with All Column Types
• Conditional Email Templates Based on Column Values

Book a free consultation to see cross-board status sync in action: https://calendly.com/rp-spaceo/call-with-rakesh-est-timezone