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Subitems in monday.com are very powerful, no doubt, but only if you set them up in the right way. Too often, teams use them as a simple checklist and leave serious productivity gains on the table. With the right tweaks and small changes, subitems can transform from “extra rows” into mini workflows that give you clarity, accountability, and speed.
Here are six ways to take your monday.com subitems from basic to brilliant.
Use Automations to Keep Subitems in Sync
One major pain point with subitems is that: subitems don’t always reflect the bigger picture. Automations fix that. For example:
- Mirror subitem status to the parent item.
- Trigger notifications when all subitems hit “Done.”
- Auto-assign subitems based on keywords or columns.
This keeps projects moving without manual updates.
Standardize with Subitem Templates
If every project has recurring steps, don’t rebuild the wheel each time. Set up subitem templates, like “Draft,” “Review,” “Approval”, so they auto-populate when a parent item is created. This saves time and ensures consistency across projects.
Mirror Columns for Better Context
Need deadlines, owners, or budgets visible at both levels? Use mirror columns. A mirrored “Due Date” column on the parent item lets you spot risks without drilling down, while still giving subitem owners detailed control.
Track Workload at the Subitem Level
Resource planning gets messy if you only assign work at the top. Assign subitems to specific team members so workload views show the real distribution of tasks. This helps prevent hidden bottlenecks.
Color-Code and Group for Instant Clarity
Visual cues matter. Use color-coded statuses or priority tags in subitems so you can scan a project and instantly see where things stand. Group subitems by stage (e.g., “Planning,” “Execution,” “QA”) for even sharper structure.
Connect Subitems to Dashboards
Dashboards aren’t just for high-level items. You can feed subitem data into widgets, like burndown charts or workload graphs, to get deeper insights. This is especially powerful for tracking granular tasks in agile teams or client projects.
Bonus Tip:
If you want to import subitems in your monday board using Excel sheets, just like you would import items, give this app a try : Subitem Import/Update
A way to bulk add Subitems. Add or update Subitems using an external data source such as Excel.
👉 Parse and read Excel files
👉 Add or create Subitems from Excel data
👉 Multiple options and combinations to choose from, including creating and updating Subitems at the same time from Excel data.
👉 Handling duplicate Subitems in your board and Excel sheet.
👉 Creating Subitems under multiple parent Items
👉 Updating Subitems using parent Items or matching name.
👉 Supports multiple column types
All of these in one place.
Final Take
Subitems are more than a to-do list under your main tasks, they’re the backbone of detail-oriented project management. With automations, templates, mirroring, and dashboards, you can make them work smarter, not harder.
If your team is already living in monday.com, these small changes can mean the difference between cluttered chaos and clean, actionable workflows.