Setting Up Kanban Boards in Bitrix24
Managers manage tasks as a list — a long sheet of 80 rows, half overdue, priorities unclear. The manager asks: "What's in progress right now?" — and manual counting begins. Kanban solves this visually: stage columns, task cards, drag-and-drop between stages. But out-of-the-box Kanban in Bitrix24 has three standard columns with no logic. We configure it for your real process.
Kanban in Tasks
Each project (workgroup) in Bitrix24 has its own Kanban board. Stages are set in the board settings — these aren't task statuses (New / In Progress / Completed) but custom stages specific to the project.
Example stages for IT department: Backlog → Planned → In Development → On Review → Testing → Done. For marketing department: Idea → Approval → Production → Publishing → Analysis.
The task card on the board shows: title, assignee, deadline, priority. Overdue tasks are highlighted — visible at a glance.
Kanban in CRM
In CRM, Kanban is the primary way to work with deals. Columns are sales funnel stages. A manager drags a deal from "New" to "Negotiations", then to "Contract Agreement" and beyond.
Setting up funnel stages: CRM → Settings → Reference Books → Deal Stages. Each funnel has its own set of stages. Stages for Kanban in leads are configured similarly via status reference.
Automation by Stages
The main value of custom stages is binding robots and triggers to each column:
- Deal moved to "Proposal Prep" → robot creates a task to the manager with template and deadline.
- Deal moved to "Contract Agreement" → robot sends notification to legal team.
- Task moved to "On Review" → robot changes assignee to team lead.
- Deal stuck on stage for more than 3 days → trigger moves it to "Needs Attention" or sends reminder.
Robots are configured in the stage card: CRM → Robots and Triggers or Tasks → Robots. Each stage can contain a chain of actions.
WIP Limits and Load Control
WIP (Work In Progress) concept — limiting the number of tasks on a stage. If "In Development" already has 5 tasks, taking a sixth isn't wise — quality drops. Bitrix24 doesn't support hard WIP limits at the platform level, but there are workarounds:
- Visual control. Task counter in column header — manager sees the load.
- Reminder robot. Business process checks task count on stage and notifies manager when threshold is exceeded.
Display Configuration
The Kanban board can be customized:
- Card fields. Choose which fields display on the deal or task card on the board — remove unnecessary, add important (budget, client type, priority).
- Column sorting. By deadline, priority, creation date.
- Filtering. Quick filter by assignee, tag, deadline — see only relevant cards.
What We Configure
- Kanban board stage design for company processes (tasks and CRM)
- Create custom stages for each project and funnel
- Set up robots and triggers on stage transitions
- Choose fields for card display
- WIP limit recommendations and load control
- Team training: board use, card movement, metric reading