Migrating from one project management tool to another is never painless, but it doesn’t have to be chaotic either. This guide covers the full process of moving from Monday.com to Asana — from exporting your data to rebuilding your workflows in the new environment.
Why Teams Switch
Before diving into the how, it’s worth understanding the common reasons teams make this move:
- Pricing pressure — Monday.com’s per-seat pricing at the Standard and Pro tiers can exceed Asana’s equivalent plans, especially for larger teams
- UI complexity — Monday.com’s flexibility comes with interface density that some teams find overwhelming
- Workflow preferences — Asana’s list and board views feel more streamlined for teams that don’t need Monday.com’s formula columns or advanced automations
- Integration needs — some teams find Asana’s native integrations (particularly with Google Workspace and Slack) tighter for their stack
Not every team should switch. If you rely heavily on Monday.com’s Gantt timelines, formula columns, or custom automations, verify Asana covers those use cases before committing.
For detailed feature comparisons, see our Monday.com review and Asana review.
Pre-Migration Checklist
Complete these before touching any export buttons:
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Audit your Monday.com workspace — List every board, the owner, and whether it’s actively used. Most teams have boards that haven’t been touched in months. Don’t migrate dead weight.
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Map your data structure — Monday.com and Asana use different terminology for the same concepts:
| Monday.com | Asana Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Workspace | Organization |
| Board | Project |
| Group | Section |
| Item | Task |
| Sub-item | Subtask |
| Column | Custom Field |
| Update | Comment |
| Person column | Assignee |
| Status column | Custom field (dropdown) |
| Timeline column | Start date + Due date |
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Identify custom columns — Monday.com’s formula columns, mirror columns, and connected boards don’t have direct Asana equivalents. Decide how to handle these before migration: recreate manually, approximate with Asana custom fields, or drop them.
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Notify your team — Give at least two weeks’ notice. Share the timeline, the reason, and what they need to do (which should be minimal — you handle the migration, they learn the new tool).
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Set up your Asana workspace — Create the organization, invite a small pilot group, and configure basic settings (teams, project templates) before importing data.
Step 1: Export Data from Monday.com
Monday.com supports CSV export at the board level. There’s no workspace-wide export — you’ll need to export each board individually.
For each board: open the board, click the three-dot menu (⋯), select More actions → Export board to Excel. The file downloads as .xlsx — convert to .csv if needed.
Item names, group names, status values, person assignments, dates, and text columns export cleanly. File attachments, comments, automations, and connected board relationships do not — download attachments separately and screenshot critical comment threads before migrating.
Step 2: Prepare Your CSV Files
Before importing into Asana, clean up each CSV:
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Rename column headers to match Asana’s expected format:
Name(task name),Assignee(email address),Due Date(YYYY-MM-DD),Section(Monday.com’s “Group”),Description. Monday.com’s default headers won’t auto-map. -
Note your status labels — Monday.com labels like “Working on it” and “Stuck” don’t transfer. You’ll recreate them as Asana dropdown custom fields.
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Remove formula/mirror columns — these import as blank cells or static values. Plan to recreate the logic in Asana if needed.
Step 3: Import into Asana
Asana supports CSV import at the project level:
- In Asana, click Create → Project → Import from CSV
- Upload your prepared CSV file
- Asana will show a column mapping preview — verify that each column maps correctly
- Choose the project format: List, Board, or Timeline
- Click Import
Asana creates tasks from each row. Sections are created from the “Section” column. Custom fields are generated from any unmapped columns — review and clean these up after import.
Repeat for each board/project. There’s no bulk import across multiple projects.
Step 4: Rebuild What Didn’t Transfer
After the initial import, you’ll need to manually recreate several elements:
Custom Fields
Monday.com’s column types don’t translate automatically. Set up Asana custom fields to replace:
- Status columns → Dropdown custom fields
- Priority columns → Priority custom field (Asana has a built-in one)
- Number columns → Number custom fields
- Tags → Asana tags or multi-select custom fields
Automations
Monday.com automations won’t carry over. Audit your existing automations and rebuild the critical ones using Asana Rules:
- Task assignment on status change
- Due date reminders
- Moving tasks between sections
- Slack notifications
Asana’s Rules cover common automation scenarios. For complex automations that used Monday.com’s custom recipes, you may need Zapier or Make (formerly Integromat) as a bridge.
Dependencies
If you used Monday.com’s dependency arrows, recreate these in Asana:
- Open a task → Mark as dependent on… → select the predecessor task
- This is manual. For projects with dozens of dependencies, this is the most time-consuming part of migration.
Views
Rebuild your preferred views:
- Monday.com’s Main Table → Asana List view
- Monday.com’s Kanban → Asana Board view
- Monday.com’s Timeline → Asana Timeline view (requires Premium or higher)
- Monday.com’s Dashboard → Asana Dashboard (custom charts and graphs)
Step 5: Team Onboarding
The technical migration is half the battle. Getting your team comfortable with Asana is the other half.
Run a 30-minute walkthrough showing where tasks live and how to update status. Create a reference project documenting your team’s Asana conventions. Have the team run both tools in parallel for one week before cutting over. Designate one person as the Asana champion for ongoing questions.
Common Problems and Fixes
- Assignee emails don’t match — Monday.com may use different emails than Asana accounts. Export your Monday.com user list, match to Asana accounts, and bulk-reassign after import.
- Dates import incorrectly — Reformat to YYYY-MM-DD in your spreadsheet before import.
- Sub-items don’t nest — Monday.com sub-items export as flat rows. After import, manually convert them to subtasks using drag-and-drop or Asana’s Tab+N shortcut.
- Comments are lost — CSV export excludes Monday.com Updates. Screenshot or copy critical decision threads before migrating.
Timeline and Final Steps
Expect 3-4 weeks from planning to full cutover for a team of 10-50 people: one week for planning and audit, a few days for export/import, one week to rebuild automations and custom fields, and one week of parallel running before the switch.
For teams with 50+ boards, third-party migration tools (Trujay, Import2) can automate parts of the process. For fewer than 20 active boards, the manual CSV approach is faster.
After cutover, keep Monday.com in read-only mode for 30-60 days so historical files remain accessible. Export a final backup before closing the account.
Compare Monday.com and Asana features → Monday.com vs Asana