Monday.com in Practice: Build a Simple CRM and Task Pipeline (Step by Step)

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Small and medium teams often outgrow spreadsheets but don’t want the overhead of a heavyweight CRM or a rigid project tool. Monday.com sits in that sweet spot: it’s visual, flexible, and powerful enough to connect sales pipelines with delivery workflows so nothing falls between the cracks. In this deep, practical guide, you’ll set up a lightweight CRM and a task pipeline end-to-end—complete with automations, connected boards, dashboards, and useful views—so your leads convert faster and handoffs to execution are seamless.

What you’ll build

  • A Sales CRM board with stages like New, Qualified, Proposal, Negotiation, Won, Lost.
  • A Client Delivery board that spins up automatically when a deal is won, with subitems for onboarding and project tasks.
  • Connected Boards + Mirror columns so delivery sees the key CRM data without asking sales.
  • Automations that assign owners, set due dates, ping Slack/Email, and create client folders or docs.
  • Dashboards to see pipeline value, weighted forecast, conversion rates, workload, and due risks.
  • Forms that capture leads straight into the CRM with the right fields.

Everything below uses out-of-the-box features—no code needed.

Design principles before you click anything

  1. One item = one real-world entity. In the CRM, an item is a deal (or opportunity). In delivery, an item is a client project or engagement.
  2. Columns tell the story. Choose columns that answer who/what/when/how much/next step. Too few = ambiguity; too many = friction.
  3. Views for each role. Sales wants Kanban by stage; leadership wants conversion and forecast; delivery wants Gantt/Calendar.
  4. Automate handoffs. Humans forget; recipes don’t. Every cross-team handoff should be automatic and auditable.
  5. Name things consistently. “ACME – Website Revamp – 2025Q1” beats “acme new site”.

Part 1 — Build the Sales CRM board

Create a new board called “Sales CRM”. Use groups to separate time horizons (e.g., This Quarter, Next Quarter, Backlog) or by product line—whatever reflects your planning.

Essential columns (and why)

  • Item Name (text): “Company – Deal Title”.
  • Status (pipeline stage): New, Qualified, Discovery, Proposal, Negotiation, Won, Lost. Color these clearly; green for Won, red for Lost.
  • People (Owner): who’s accountable.
  • Date (Close Date): target close.
  • Numbers (Deal Value): currency format.
  • Dropdown/Tags (Source): Referral, Inbound, Event, Outbound, Partner.
  • Phone/Email (Primary Contact): useful for quick actions.
  • Text (Next Step): the one thing to do next.
  • Timeline (Sales Cycle): start at first touch, end at projected close.
  • Numbers (Probability %): stage-based or manual.
  • Formula (Weighted Value): Deal Value * Probability / 100.
  • Text (Notes): key context/objections.
  • Files (Docs): proposals, SOW drafts.

Tip: lock down the stage list; fewer, well-defined stages produce cleaner reports.

Helpful board views

  • Kanban by Stage: perfect for pipeline reviews.
  • Table – My Deals: filter Owner = me; sort by Close Date ascending.
  • Calendar: visualizes close dates and follow-ups.
  • Chart: sum of Deal Value by Stage; another for count of items by Source.

Must-have automations (recipes)

  • Lead assignment
    When Source changes to “Inbound”, assign Owner to SDR and set Next Step to “Qualify within 24h”.
  • SLA nudges
    When item is created, start a 24h timer; if Stage is still “New”, notify Owner: “Touch this lead.”
  • Stage transitions
    When Stage changes to Negotiation, set Probability to 70% and create a reminder 3 days before Close Date.
  • Loss reason capture
    When Stage changes to Lost, open an update prompt: “Add loss reason.” (Use an additional Status/Dropdown column “Loss Reason”.)
  • Win handoff
    When Stage changes to Won, create an item in “Client Delivery” board and connect the boards.
    Immediately mirror Client Name, Deal Value, Close Date into Delivery. This is the heart of your CRM→Delivery bridge.

Capture leads with Forms

Create a Form View on the CRM board exposing only the safe fields: Company, Contact, Email, Phone, Deal Description, Source. Embed the form on your site or share a link. Add an automation: When item is created via form, set Stage to New and assign Owner to SDR. Now the CRM fills itself and SLAs fire automatically.

Part 2 — Build the Client Delivery board

Create a new board “Client Delivery”. Each item is a client project/work order created automatically on a win.

Core structure

  • Item Name: autofill from CRM using an automation mapping (e.g., Company + Project Name).
  • Status (Project Phase): Planning, In Progress, Review, On Hold, Completed.
  • People (Project Manager) and People (Team).
  • Timeline: start/end dates for the engagement.
  • Numbers (Budget): mirror or map from Deal Value.
  • Connected Boards: link back to the CRM item (created by the win automation).
  • Mirror columns: Deal Value, Close Date, Source, Owner for context.

Subitems for onboarding/tasks

Open an item and add Subitems to model repeatable steps:

  • Kickoff scheduled
  • Access & credentials gathered
  • Project plan approved
  • First milestone delivered
  • Billing setup

Use subitem automations: When subitem status changes to Done and all subitems are Done, change parent Status to Completed.

Delivery automations

  • Auto-dates
    When item is created, set Timeline to start today and end in 30 days (adjust per product).
  • Role assignment
    When Budget > $20k, assign Senior PM; otherwise assign Standard PM.
  • Risk pings
    Add a Health status (Green/Yellow/Red). When Health changes to Red, notify leadership and post to #delivery-risks in Slack/Teams.
  • Docs on creation
    If you use monday workdocs, automation can create a Project Brief doc on item creation, pre-filled with mirrored CRM fields.

Delivery views

  • Gantt for dependencies/milestones.
  • Calendar for deliverable due dates.
  • Workload to see team allocation by Person column and Timeline.
  • My Tasks board view filtered by current user.

Part 3 — Connect CRM and Delivery with relationships

The “Win handoff” automation you added earlier both creates the delivery item and connects the boards. Now:

  • Sales can open the CRM deal and see the linked delivery item status mirrored back (optional mirror “Phase”).
  • Delivery sees mirrored deal value and notes, avoiding retyping or chasing context.
  • Finance can mirror Deal Value and Close Date to reconcile invoices.

Add another recipe for feedback loop: When Delivery Phase changes to Completed, update CRM Stage to “Delivered” and set a Date column “Go-Live”. This closes the loop for reporting.

Part 4 — Dashboards that answer real questions

Create a Dashboard (top left “Add” → Dashboard) and add these widgets:

  • Numbers widget: Sum of Deal Value for Stage ≠ Lost (pipeline).
  • Numbers widget (Weighted): Sum of Weighted Value (your forecast).
  • Chart: Conversion rate by stage (count Won / count entering stage).
  • Chart: Deals by Source (which channels work).
  • Table widget: “Deals closing in next 14 days” filtered view.
  • Battery/Status widget: Overall Delivery health (share of Red/Yellow/Green).
  • Workload widget: Team capacity next 4 weeks.
  • Timeline widget: Delivery milestones across projects.

Stakeholders get a single link with live answers instead of screenshot reports that go stale.

Part 5 — Useful integrations (pick a few, keep noise low)

  • Email (Gmail/Outlook): When Stage changes to Proposal, send a templated email with link to proposal; log thread URL in a Text column.
  • Calendar: Sync Close Date or Kickoff to Google/Microsoft Calendar.
  • Slack/Teams: Notify the right channel on Won/Lost, health Red, or SLA breaches.
  • Docs/Drive/SharePoint: Create a folder per Deal/Project when an item is created; store proposals, SOWs, assets in a predictable path.
  • Accounting (e.g., QuickBooks/Xero via Zapier/Make): On Won, create a customer record or draft invoice.

Keep notifications actionable. If it doesn’t require a decision or a click, it’s noise.

Part 6 — Governance, permissions, and hygiene

  • Board permissions: Make CRM board visible to sales and leadership; restrict edit of Stage/Value to owners to prevent accidental edits. Delivery board can be broader but protect Budget fields.
  • Item permissions: For sensitive clients, limit item viewers.
  • Automations audit: Name each automation (“SLA – 24h touch”, “Handoff – create delivery item”) and review monthly.
  • Archive policy: When deals are Lost > 60 days or projects Completed > 90 days, archive to keep boards snappy.
  • Field validation: Use Required fields in Forms and establish a short “definition of done” for each stage so updates are meaningful.

Part 7 — Formulas and small tricks that save big time

  • Days in Stage: Add a Created Date and a Last Stage Change date (via automation). Formula: DAYS(TODAY(), {Last Stage Change}) to spotlight stalled deals.
  • Gross Margin Estimator (Delivery): Budget * (1 - Cost% ) where Cost% is another Numbers column; handy for quick prioritization.
  • Lost Reason Analytics: Use a Dropdown “Reason” and chart it monthly; it will shape your playbooks.
  • Owner focus view: Create one view per seller (filter Owner = person). Save it and share the link in their sidebar.
  • Update templates: In the Updates panel, save a template with fields: Context, Decision Needed, Due By. Consistent updates shorten meetings.

Part 8 — Sample operating rhythm (one week)

  • Monday 9:00 — Sales stand-up on Kanban by Stage. Move cards, add Next Steps.
  • Tuesday 14:00 — Delivery planning on Gantt + Workload; rebalance.
  • Wednesday 16:00 — Leadership reviews Dashboard forecast vs target, top risks, and actions.
  • Thursday — SDRs work My Deals view; SLA automation nudges stale New leads.
  • Friday — PMs update Health; red items auto-notify leadership; wins trigger delivery creation; finance exports Won this week.

Meetings become faster because your boards and dashboards already tell the truth.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

  • Too many stages. Keep it simple; add tags for nuance.
  • Manual handoffs. If people copy/paste info, add an automation.
  • Notification spam. Start small; prune weekly.
  • Undocumented rules. Add a top-pinned “How this board works” doc with stage definitions, SLA rules, and naming.
  • Untested backups. Export boards (Excel/CSV) monthly; keep a versioned template base.

What success looks like

  • Every lead is touched within 24 hours without a manager nagging.
  • Handoffs from Won to delivery happen instantly with zero duplicate typing.
  • Leadership has live forecast and capacity in one place.
  • Sales and delivery speak the same language because the boards enforce it.

With this setup, Monday.com stops being “another place to update” and becomes the system of execution that quietly runs in the background while your team sells and ships.

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