Before you start using Boardly, it helps to understand how the platform is structured. Boardly is designed around how governance teams actually work — from organisation level, down to committees, and finally to the meetings, papers, decisions and actions that drive governance outcomes.
This guide helps you get your organisation set up in Boardly and ready to run your first board or committee meeting.
It walks you through the essential steps — from creating your organisation and adding users, to preparing and publishing your first meeting pack — so your governance team can start working in Boardly with confidence.
A Boardly user account is a person’s individual login and identity within the platform.
Each person has one account, which can be linked to one or more organisations and workspaces.A user must have a Boardly account before they can be added to an organisation or granted access to any workspace.
Creating an Organisation is the first step in setting up Boardly. Your Organisation represents your company or entity and acts as the secure home for all boards, committees, users, and governance records.
Workspaces represent the individual boards, committees, or governance groups within your Organisation. Each workspace operates independently, with its own members, meetings, agenda papers, decisions, actions, and records.
This structure ensures that every board or committee has a clear, secure, and well-organised environment for managing its governance activities.
Meetings are the central point of governance activity in Boardly. They bring together agenda papers, decisions, actions, and minutes into a single, structured record of each board or committee meeting.
Every meeting creates a complete and auditable history of what was discussed, approved, and followed up.
Agenda Papers represent the individual topics that will be discussed during a meeting. Each agenda paper contains the information, analysis, and recommendations needed for the board or committee to make informed decisions.
Agenda Paper owners and contributors can:
- Write and edit the paper
- Add attachments
- Collaborate with other contributors
When a paper is marked as Final, it is locked and included in the published board pack. Board Members are notified when final papers are available for review.This ensures that everyone is working from the same, approved set of meeting materials.
Workspace Managers are notified when a board paper is submitted as final.
Meeting Actions capture the tasks and follow-ups agreed during or after a meeting. They ensure that decisions made by the board or committee are translated into clear, trackable actions. Actions can be recorded during the meeting or added afterwards as part of post-meeting finalisation.
Decisions record the formal outcomes of agenda items discussed during a meeting. They capture what the board or committee approved, noted, or deferred, and form a permanent part of the governance record. Decisions are created as part of an agenda paper and are finalised during the meeting.
Meeting Minutes are the official record of what was discussed, decided, and agreed during a meeting. They provide a complete and auditable account of the meeting for governance, legal, and compliance purposes. In Boardly, minutes are built from notes captured during the meeting for each agenda item or from a meeting transcription.
The Files area is used to store important governance documents that sit outside the regular meeting cycle, such as:
- Board and committee charters
- Policies and frameworks
- Codes of conduct
- Reference materials
These documents act as the single source of truth for governance materials that do not belong to a specific meeting.
Surveys allow boards and committees to gather structured, confidential feedback from members on governance effectiveness, performance, and key topics. They are commonly used for board evaluations, meeting effectiveness reviews, culture and risk pulse checks, and post-meeting feedback.
By capturing responses in a standardised and anonymous format, Boardly helps boards identify trends, highlight issues, and support continuous improvement without requiring separate survey tools or manual collation.
Boardly uses automated email notifications to keep board members, managers, and contributors informed and aligned throughout the governance cycle. Notifications are sent based on each person’s role within a workspace.
Board Members
Board Members receive notifications when:
- A meeting is created
- A board pack is published or unpublished
- A decision or resolution is submitted or certified
- Meeting minutes is submitted or certified
- Surveys are published or closed
Workspace Managers (Secretaries)
Workspace Managers receive notifications similar to the board members, plus:
- Agenda papers are submitted as final
- Meeting actions were completed or closed
Contributors
Contributors receive notifications when:
- Agenda items are assigned to them
- Agenda papers are returned for changes
- They are assigned actions, or actions assigned have been reopened
These notifications ensure that everyone knows what is required of them and when, helping meetings run smoothly and on schedule.
The platform is accessible via both web and mobile (phones and tablets), supporting iOS and Android devices.
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