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Monday permissions are 4 layers deep (Account → Workspace → Board → Item) and each layer can block access. When a teammate says 'I cannot see this,' the diagnosis takes minutes if you know the order. Here is the order.
Who this is forAdmins and ops leads getting permission complaints — 'I cannot see the board,' 'I cannot edit this item,' 'I see this board but cannot do X.' If you have ever spent 30 minutes hunting down a permission setting, this tutorial is the systematic walk-through.
What you'll need
Step 1
Monday has 4 user types: Admin, Member, Viewer, Guest. Each has different baseline access. Start with the user type.
Account → Administration → Users → find the affected user.
Check their user type: Admin (full account control), Member (can create + edit boards in workspaces they belong to), Viewer (read-only), Guest (limited to specific shared boards).
If they are a Viewer, they cannot edit anything by design — fix is to upgrade to Member (consumes a paid seat).
If they are a Guest, they only see boards explicitly shared with them — fix is to share the specific board with them, or upgrade to Member.
If they are deactivated or have a pending invitation, they have NO access — accept the invite or reactivate.
Step 2
Workspaces have access scope (Open / Closed). Closed workspaces require explicit membership. This is the most common block.
Open the workspace where the affected board lives → Workspace Settings (gear) → People & Permissions.
Look at workspace permission scope: Open (everyone in the account can see workspace content), Closed (only invited members see workspace content).
If workspace is Closed and the user is not in the member list → that is the block. Add them.
If workspace is Open and they still cannot see the board → the issue is at the board level (next step), not the workspace level.
Note: workspace membership is separate from board-level membership. A user can be in a workspace but blocked at the board level.
Step 3
Each board can be Main (anyone in workspace can see), Shareable (specific subscribers only), or Private (creator + invited only).
Open the board → Board name dropdown (top-left, click the board name) → Board permissions.
Board type: Main (visible to all workspace members), Shareable (visible to subscribers only — even within the workspace), Private (visible to creator + manually invited only).
If the board is Shareable or Private, the user must be added as a subscriber. Add them via Subscribers → +.
Verify by logging in as the affected user (in a private/incognito window with their credentials, if you have admin override) or asking them to refresh.
Note: changing board type from Private → Main exposes the board to everyone in the workspace immediately. Be deliberate.
Step 4
Boards can have item-level permissions enabled — even if a user can see the board, they may only see their own items.
Open the board → Board name dropdown → Board permissions → Item-level permissions.
If enabled, the rule is set per role: "Members can edit only items where they are the owner," "Members can view all items, edit own," etc.
If the user can see the board but cannot edit specific items, item-level permissions are usually the cause.
Fix: either change ownership of the item to the user, or relax the item-level rule (e.g., "Members can edit all items").
Common pattern: Sales CRM boards have item-level permissions so reps only edit their own deals. This is intentional, not a bug.
Step 5
On Pro+ accounts, individual columns can be restricted. A user might see the item but not see specific columns.
Open the board → click the column header → Column permissions (Pro+ only).
Column permissions can restrict who can view or edit specific columns. Common use: hide salary / cost / margin columns from reps.
If a user cannot see a column that other team members see, this is the cause. Adjust column permissions.
Note: a "Read" restriction means the user cannot see the column at all. "Edit" restriction means they can see but not change.
Step 6
Connect Boards columns link items across boards. The user needs access to BOTH boards for the connection to be visible.
If a board uses Connect Boards (e.g., Deals → Contacts), the user needs at least Viewer access to the connected board to see the connected items.
Common failure: a user can see the Deals board but the Connected Contact field is empty for them, because they do not have access to the Contacts board.
Fix: grant the user access to the connected board (Subscriber on a Shareable board, Member of the workspace if Closed).
This is especially common when users move teams — they lose access to one workspace and connected fields suddenly go blank.
Step 7
If permission tickets are weekly, the underlying model is broken. Run a quarterly permission audit.
Account → Administration → Users → User Activity. Review who accessed what and when. Identify users with unexpectedly broad or narrow access.
Audit workspace permissions: which workspaces are Closed vs Open? Should sensitive workspaces (Sales pipeline, Financials) be Closed? Should team-collaboration workspaces be Open?
Audit board permissions: how many boards are Private? Privacy on default boards is often accidental — review and adjust.
Audit Guest access: Guests cannot see other guests, and external Guests should be on a specific limited set of boards. Audit which Guests have access to which boards.
Document the intended permission model in a Monday Doc. Every new board should fit the model, not invent its own.
Common mistakes
Default workspace permission is Open
What goes wrong: Sales pipeline workspace is Open. Marketing accidentally sees deal data. Or worse — a contractor with workspace access sees salary data on the People board. Data leak risk: $20-100K+ in legal/HR exposure.
How to avoid: Default sensitive workspaces (Sales, People/HR, Finance, Strategy) to Closed. Default team-collaboration workspaces (Marketing Calendar, Engineering, Customer Support) to Open. Document the rule.
Granting everyone Member instead of Viewer
What goes wrong: Eight execs who only watch dashboards consume Member seats at $24/user/mo (Pro). $2,300/yr overpayment. Plus, Members can accidentally edit things they should not.
How to avoid: Audit user types quarterly. Execs and read-only stakeholders should be Viewers (free or discounted seat). Reserve Member for people who edit, automate, or own boards.
Item-level permissions enabled accidentally
What goes wrong: A board owner enabled item-level permissions while testing. Now reps on a team board can only see their own items, missing team-wide context. Forecast accuracy and team coordination drop. ~$10-20K/quarter of coordination loss.
How to avoid: Audit board permissions on shared team boards. Item-level should be ON for Sales CRM but OFF for Marketing Campaigns and Engineering Sprints. Enable deliberately.
Forgotten Guest access
What goes wrong: External Guest from a vendor contract 18 months ago still has access to a shared board with current data. Compliance risk + competitive risk. Worst case: lost client trust worth $50K+ ARR.
How to avoid: Quarterly audit: Account → Administration → Users → filter to Guest. Remove anyone no longer working with the company.
Sharing boards via public link without expiration
What goes wrong: A board shared as a public link to a client 12 months ago is still accessible. The link is in someone's bookmarks. Competitor or ex-employee finds it. Strategy data leaks.
How to avoid: For public links, set an expiration (Pro+ feature). Audit active shareable links quarterly. Disable links no longer needed.
No documented permission model
What goes wrong: Every admin makes one-off permission decisions. Six months in, the account is a patchwork of inconsistent rules. New hires get random access. Audit fails. ~$10-25K/yr in admin overhead from firefighting.
How to avoid: Document the permission model in a Monday Doc: which workspaces are Closed vs Open, who is Admin vs Member vs Viewer, when item-level permissions are enabled, Guest policy. Every new board fits the model.
Recap
Done — what's next
How to set up a Monday.com workspace without painting yourself into a corner
Read the next tutorial
Hand it off
Permission problems are usually a symptom of an undocumented governance model. A specialist will audit the current state, document the model, fix the obvious leaks, and set up the quarterly audit habit. One-shot audits run $100-300; ongoing ops support runs $400-1,200/mo at $14-16/hr.
See specialist rates
Account Admin = full account control including billing, user management, and all workspaces. Workspace Admin = admin of one workspace only (can manage that workspace's members and boards but not the account). Use Workspace Admin to delegate workspace governance without giving billing access.
Yes. Board permissions are independent of workspace permissions. An Open workspace can contain Private boards (visible only to creator + invited) and Shareable boards (visible to subscribers only). Adjust per board via Board name dropdown → Board permissions.
Deactivating a user does NOT delete their items — items remain on the board with the deactivated user as the owner. Best practice: before deactivating, reassign items to another owner via bulk update. After deactivation, items are visible but the owner shows as deactivated.
Guests do not consume Member seats but have their own limit per plan tier. Free: 1 Guest. Standard: up to 4 guests per paid seat. Pro: up to 5. Enterprise: unlimited. Guests are useful for client/vendor collaboration without giving full account access.
Connect Boards links require access to BOTH boards. If the user has access to the source board but NOT to the connected board, the linked cells appear empty. Grant them at least Viewer access to the connected board to see the connections.
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