Kanban Tool basics

Looking for a short, clear answer on what Kanban Tool is, how it works, and why it’s a perfect fit for most types of teamwork management? You’re in luck! The first minute of this video covers all the essentials, while the remaining four minutes dive into some of the service’s top features. Check it out and see how it can boost your team’s productivity!

Kanban Tool is a highly successful visual management application for organizing work and projects in line with the Kanban method. Our software was designed especially for Scrum & Kanban software development and for project management. Kanban Tool lets you see the whole project at a glance on a Kanban board. The application also provides easy collaboration in real-time, no matter the team size. With Kanban Tool you can visualize business processes, manage projects, and deliver outstanding results!

Kanban Tool was established in 2009 and since then it’s been showing exceptionally strong growth in the global marketplace. Today Kanban Tool is the leading Kanban software for visual project management. Its strengths are simplicity, intuitiveness and a unique design resembling a real Kanban board, with a rich set of additional features.

We pride ourselves on providing outstanding customer service and top application security and reliability. Our customers say that ours is probably the best Kanban tool in the market. Sign up now to empower your productivity and outperform your competitors.

For more videos on using Kanban Tool, please visit the Kanban Tool YouTube channel.

For more videos about Kanban Tool, please visit the Kanban Tool YouTube channel.

To start an account for your team, go to kanbantool.com and, using the free trial option, create your team’s subdomain.
Although the service’s use begins with a free trial period, please note the account name, e.g., dream-team.kanbantool.com, cannot be changed at a later stage. Please choose it carefully.

The selected account name will become your custom login address. For example, naming it dream-team will give you a dedicated dream-team.kanbantool.com/login page.
All your team members will be logging in on that same page, but each user will have their username and password.

The person who starts the account, the account owner controls which board/s the other users can see and what they can do on them.

For a quick walkthrough of the account creation process, please view this video:

Account users with at least the project manager access privilege can create new boards from the dashboard - the list of all projects. The dashboard is the first page you see after logging in. To access it from a board view, click the hamburger menu icon and the home icon or account name.

Once in the account dashboard, please use the blue create new board link.

You can define a custom board layout, ask the AI Assistant to suggest a layout specific to your needs, or use one of the available templates.

A board’s layout, as well as other board features, can be adjusted at any time from board Settings - Board Editor. From there, you can also add swimlanes to your board.

For more videos on using Kanban Tool, please visit our YouTube channel.

Get started with Kanban Tool faster with a complete User Manual. Click to view or download: Kanban Tool Manual.

A complete list of Kanban Tool features is available on the Product page.

Kanban Tool’s development process is based on our internal backlog. We have great users and customers who regularly send us emails with suggestions for new features. We read all the emails and appreciate the feedback. Accepted ideas get to our internal backlog and we implement the most important and most often asked ones first.

Kanban Tool is constantly under development. We work hard to implement accepted ideas as soon as possible and we do our best to make improvements every few weeks.

If you want to learn about Kanban and of how to start using the method, please visit the Kanban Library. In there, you will find a general introduction to Kanban, as well as carefully selected links to articles, blog posts, pdfs and books on Kanban boards, use of Kanban in software development and operations, explanation of Kanban analytics and Scrum, and many more.

To speed up the creation of your own Kanban board, please view our express board Tutorial - it explains how to use the boards and cards in Kanban Tool. You will find it in the top-right corner of any board, in the Tools menu.

For further help with getting started, we welcome you to view:

• This short Getting Started with Kanban Tool video
• Kanban Tool Demo
• The complete Kanban Tool User Guide
• Kanban Tool use case examples
• And to learn how to make the most of the Kanban Tool fast, view our rapid productivity tips.

We wouldn’t want you to miss any new developments in Kanban Tool! New releases are announced on Twitter, Facebook and - in fullest detail - on our Blog. Stay tuned!

In case you have not yet set up an account with us, please see how to do it here.

If you’re looking for some general information about starting to use the Kanban method, please read the “How to introduce kanban to your team?” blog post.

To get a short overview of Kanban Tool service capabilities, please view the tutorial available under the Tools menu at the top-right corner of your board view.

You can create a Kanban board and then divide it into columns that reflect your workflow. You’ll need to think of what steps each task needs to go through. The simplest set-up is: To do, Doing, Done. But most processes are a bit more complex, for instance: To do, Waiting for approval, Approved, Doing (divided into sub-columns: Buffer, Working), Quality Assurance, Done.

It’s easiest to start simple, for example with one of the available board templates. When creating a new board, we suggest choosing the basic or time driven template. An existing board layout can be tweaked at any point to match your specific process and its potential changes over time.

To see examples of popular workflows, please go to:

• Kanban Tool video use case examples
• Selected Kanban Tool Client Use Cases

We also recommend the Kanban Tool User Manual with guidelines on how to create your first Kanban board and how to start using Kanban Tool. Feel free to download it here: Kanban Tool User Manual (PDF) You can also view this 3-minute video tutorial on getting started:

For general information about Kanban boards please visit:

• The Kanban board section of Kanban Library
• and Case studies in Kanban Library.

Kanban boards update automatically - there is no need to save anything manually.

If you’re looking for quick productivity tips on how to make the most out of Kanban Tool and become super productive - make sure you’re aware of the below features. Knowing them may save you time and increase your productivity by up to 300%.

• Column & swimlane collapsing
• Creating tasks from email
• Task chat-like comments
• Free mobile applications: Android & iOS
• Process Automation
• Kanban board filters
• Kanban boards search
• Time Tracking & Reporting
• Due date reminders
• Wide range of free board add-ons, with Recurring Tasks and Postponed Tasks, Checklist Templates, Task Summary, or AI Assistant to name just a few.

The Enterprise plan includes everything that is included in the Team plan plus:

• Time Tracking and Time Reporting, providing detailed analysis of your team's working times,
• My Work for today widget, simplifying individual work management across multiple Kanban boards
• Process Automation, which offers extensive ability to make dependencies between actions on your board
  (i.e. automatic in-depth card edits and custom notifications),
• and User Groups, making team access management to multiple boards much simpler.

Aside from these rich features, the Team plan supports the standard Kanban Tool functionalities, as presented on the product page.

Please note, that time tracking & reporting are only available on accounts using the Enterprise service plan. To see what plan your account is on and to change it, please go to Account Administration - Plan & Billing details.

Time tracking will get activated for any task, that is moved to an in progress type of column. It can also be manually activated, under right-click on a closed task - Start timer. To make sure, that your board’s In progress or Doing column is in fact of an in progress type, go to the board Settings - Board Editor and click the pencil icon under your working column. In there, you’ll see what Lane Type has been set for the column.

You can read more on time tracking configuration here.

Folders can be created in the dashboard - with the create folder option. You can place any number of boards in a folder.

When a folder is shared with a user or a number of them - they automatically gain access to all of the boards within this folder. This is a great way to control which teams within an organization have access to what sets or types of projects.

If you’re using the Enterprise service plan, you can take advantage of a built-in user groups feature. Learn more about it here.

• Use the ”+” sign:

• Enable the Add Task Box in Settings - Power-ups:

• Double-click in any column on your Kanban board:
  When double-clicking on an empty space within any column, a task creation pop-up will appear. You can use this method to insert a task between other tasks too.

• Use the import utility:
  With it, you can create tasks in bulk, please view the detailed guide on how to set up and Excel file for import.

• Send tasks to the board via email.

• Use the API.

For more videos on using Kanban Tool, please visit our Kanban Tool YouTube channel.

Kanban Tool Team and Enterprise plans allow you to use as many boards as you need, while Free plan users can work on up to two boards.

To delete a board, or to create a new one, navigate to the dashboard - the list of all your boards. To get to the dashboard, click the hamburger menu in the top-left corner of the board, which opens the board navigator. From there, click the home icon for dashboard access.

In the dashboard, users see the list of boards that were shared with them, or that they had created themselves.

Next to each board name, there is a more menu, and delete is one of its options:

Not able to create a board for yourself? Don’t see the share nor more options?
You most likely haven’t got the required account access rights. To increase your rights, please contact the team member, who invited you to Kanban Tool.