Board View

Marc is an OpEx coordinator at a vaccine fill-finish facility. Every morning at 8:15, his TIER 1 team gathers around the shop floor screen. Marc opens ProBeya's Board view, and in thirty seconds the team can see which deviations are open, which CAPAs are in progress, and what closed overnight. No more squinting at a whiteboard covered in faded sticky notes.

The Board view is the heart of ProBeya. It displays items as cards organized into vertical columns (groups) — a Kanban-style layout that makes work status visible at a glance.

When to Use Board View

Situation	Recommended view
Daily TIER 1 standup — walk the board left to right	Board
Reviewing 200 deviation records with batch numbers	Table
Planning a 6-month site shutdown schedule	Timeline
Checking which training sessions fall this week	Calendar
Building a KPI wall with OEE gauges and charts	Visual

Rule of thumb: if your meeting involves walking through statuses ("What is open? What moved? What is blocked?"), Board view is your best friend.

Anatomy of the Board

The board is organized into groups (vertical columns) and items (cards within each group):

• Groups are your workflow stages — e.g., "Open", "Under Investigation", "CAPA Assigned", "Closed & Verified". Each group has a colored header showing its name and item count.
• Items appear as cards showing the title, assignee avatar, status color indicator, and up to three pinned field values (like priority, due date, or batch number).

Creating Groups

1. Click + Add Group on the right side of the board.
2. Enter a group name — e.g., "Pending QA Review" — and press Enter.
3. Optionally assign a color via Change group color for visual distinction. Use red for blocked columns, green for completed stages.

Map groups to your workflow

For a GMP deviation board, consider: New → Under Investigation → Root Cause Identified → CAPA Assigned → CAPA Implemented → Effectiveness Check → Closed. This mirrors the deviation lifecycle your QA team already follows.

Adding Items

• Click + Add Item at the bottom of any group column, type the item title, and press Enter.
• Press N anywhere on the board to open the quick-add dialog — set the title, target group, and key fields without scrolling.
• From the command palette (Cmd+K / Ctrl+K), type "new item" to create an item on any board without navigating there.

Click a card to open the detail panel and fill in additional fields: assignee, due date, priority, batch number, equipment ID, or any custom field your board uses.

Drag and Drop

This is where ProBeya replaces the sticky note:

• Move items between groups — drag a card from "Under Investigation" to "CAPA Assigned" and the grouping field updates automatically. During tomorrow's standup, the team will see it in the right column.
• Reorder items within a group — drag cards up or down to reflect priority. The most urgent deviation should sit at the top.
• Reorder groups — drag a group header left or right to change column order.

All drag-and-drop operations sync in real time via WebSocket. When your QA colleague in the other building moves a card, you see it move on your screen within milliseconds.

Mobile Layout

On phones and small tablets (below 640px), the horizontal Kanban columns transform into a vertical accordion:

• Each group becomes a collapsible section. Tap a header to expand or collapse it.
• The first group is expanded by default.
• Touch targets are at least 48px tall for gloved-hand accessibility on the shop floor.

Customizing Card Appearance

Not every team needs the same information on the card face. Click View Settings in the top bar:

1. Under Card Fields, toggle which fields appear on each card.
2. Common choices for pharma boards: status, assignee, priority, due date, and batch number.
3. Adjust card size between compact (dense boards with 50+ items), medium (default), and expanded (rich detail for review meetings).

Toolbar Actions

Button	What it does
+ Add Item	Create a new item in the selected group
Filter	Open the filter panel to show only overdue CAPAs, or only items assigned to you
Sort	Sort cards by due date, priority, or any field
Columns	Open the Column Manager to add, reorder, or hide fields
Import CSV	Bulk-import items from a spreadsheet — useful for migrating from Excel trackers
Save as Template	Save your board structure as a reusable template for other lines or sites

Grouping By Different Fields

By default, items are grouped by their status field. But you can group by any single-select, status, or person field:

1. Click Group By in the top bar.
2. Select Assignee to see one column per team member — instantly spot who is overloaded.
3. Select Priority to see Critical, High, Medium, and Low columns side by side.

SQCDP grouping

For a TIER 1 board, create a "Category" single-select field with values Safety, Quality, Cost, Delivery, People. Group by Category and your board becomes a digital SQCDP wall.

Collapsing Groups

Click the collapse icon on any group header to minimize it. Collapsed groups show only the header and item count. This is useful during standups when you want to hide the "Closed" column and focus on active work.

Filtering and Sorting

Use the Filter and Sort buttons to focus the board. Filters and sorts work across all views and can be saved as Saved Views — for example, "My Open CAPAs" or "Overdue This Week."

See Filters and Sorting for the full guide.

Board Templates

Once you have built a well-structured board — with the right groups, columns, and card field configuration — save it as a template:

1. Click Save as Template in the toolbar.
2. Name it (e.g., "TIER 1 SQCDP Board" or "Deviation Lifecycle").
3. The template captures groups, columns, KPI definitions, and escalation rules.

When creating a new project for another production line, select this template and you get an identical board structure in seconds. Consistent process across every line, every site.

Build one great template, deploy everywhere

Marc's vaccine facility has 6 fill lines. Instead of configuring each board from scratch, he built one TIER 1 template with SQCDP groups, standard deviation fields, and escalation rules. Rolling out to the remaining 5 lines took under 10 minutes.

Empty and Error States

The board handles edge cases gracefully:

• No items yet — a centered message with "Add your first item to get started" and a prominent add button
• Loading — skeleton placeholders (3 columns with 3 card shapes each) while data loads
• Error — a retry button appears if the board data fails to load, with the error message displayed

Best Practices for Pharma Boards

• Keep groups to 5-7 columns for readability. If you need more stages, consider splitting into two boards (e.g., "Investigation" and "CAPA Implementation").
• Use color coding consistently — red for blocked stages, amber for review stages, green for completed stages. When your team sees red, they know something needs attention.
• Archive completed items regularly — a board with 500 cards in "Closed" slows down visual scanning. Archive monthly and keep the board focused on active work.
• Pin the most important fields — configure card fields to show priority and due date so critical information is visible without clicking into each item.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Cards have disappeared	Check if a filter is active — the filter icon highlights when filters are applied. Clear all filters to restore the full view.
Drag and drop not working	You may have Viewer permissions (read-only). Ask your admin to upgrade you to Member.
All groups are the same color	Click each group header and use Change group color to assign distinct colors.
Board loads slowly with 500+ items	Use filters to narrow the displayed set, or archive completed items to keep the board lean.

Real-Time Presence

When other team members are viewing the same board, their avatars appear in the top bar. During a standup, Marc can see all seven team members connected. If someone opens an item and starts editing, the board reflects those changes instantly — no refresh needed.

Permissions

Role	What they can do on the board
Admin	Everything — groups, columns, items, templates, deletion
Member	Create, edit, move, and delete items. Add groups.
Viewer	Read-only. Cards are not draggable. Perfect for auditors reviewing the board during a GMP inspection.

Next Steps

• Table View — switch to a spreadsheet-style view for data-heavy tracking
• Creating Items — all the ways to add actions and deviations
• Custom Fields — add batch numbers, equipment IDs, and GMP classifications to your board