Everything you need to know about BoardHQ — short and simple.
Dashboard
Your boards appear at the top
The chips under your name show every board you belong to. Click a chip to switch boards — this scopes the Board Meetings page to that board.
Four numbers, each one a door
The row of four numbers under your name is a way in: Upcoming meetings and Meetings behind open Board Meetings, My open tasks opens your own action items (with how many are overdue), and Board members opens the Team page for admins.
Next meeting
The Next meeting card shows the next scheduled meeting on the board you are viewing, with its date, agenda size, chair and the button for what to do next, and the two meetings after it. Click any meeting to open it.
Needs your attention
The first card on the dashboard lists every meeting that is not yet closed, plus any task assigned to you that is overdue and any task another board has asked you to answer. Each row shows the board, meeting and date, one line saying where it has got to, a five-step bar (Planned, Held, Minutes, Finalised, Confirmed) and one button for the next step. A meeting is closed when its minutes are confirmed, at the next meeting or by an admin using Confirm Minutes. Red means it has stalled: the date passed with nothing recorded, no minutes three days after the meeting, minutes left in draft for a week, or a later meeting held without confirming them. When a stalled meeting shows red, every step still outstanding is red. If a meeting's date has passed, the button reads Mark as Held. A meeting that did not happen is cancelled with the Cancel Meeting button at the top of its page, next to Edit: you are asked for a short reason, which is kept with the meeting along with who cancelled it and when. It stops asking for minutes, nothing is deleted, and Reinstate Meeting (in the same place) brings it back. The Edit page has the same option. Once a meeting's minutes are finalised it can no longer be cancelled, because the minutes record that it took place.
Action items
The right column shows tasks assigned to you across all meetings. Click the circle to close one. Hover the small icons on each task: the coloured dot tells you which board it belongs to, the arrow escalates it, and the status button lets you set it to Open, Paused, Closed or Escalated.
Escalate a task to another board
Need the Elders to approve something the Operations team is working on? Click the escalate arrow on the task, choose the board and say what you need. The task stays with its own board and owner and is marked Escalated. The other board sees it under Waiting for your board's answer, and can approve, decline or add a note. Their answer appears on the task (hover the badge) and on your board's next meeting, so you can close it off there.
Task status
Open, Escalated, Paused and Closed. Closed tasks leave your dashboard but stay on the Action Items page, greyed, and under the Closed tab. Setting an escalated task back to Open withdraws the request.
Someone who is not a member
When you add or edit a task you can type a name instead of choosing a member, for a contractor or a guest. The name shows on the task and the list. Because that person has no BoardHQ login, the task does not appear on any dashboard.
Recent meetings
Completed meetings appear at the bottom with a link to their minutes.
Annual Calendar
One calendar for everything
The Annual Calendar shows twelve months at a time: the current month, the two before it and the nine after, with the current month marked in red. It brings together the meetings of all your boards and organisations, plus reminders and task due dates, on one page.
Show or hide boards
The tick boxes at the top show or hide each board straight away, so you can look at one board or several. Reminders and Task due dates have their own tick boxes, and All and None change every box at once. Your choices are remembered in your browser.
Look further ahead or back
Use the ‹ and › arrows to move the twelve months forward or back by a year. Click Today to return to the current month.
Meetings on the calendar
Each meeting is colour-matched to its board, so you can tell at a glance which board it belongs to. Click one to open it.
Reminders on the calendar
Green entries are governance reminders like AGMs, annual reports, and compliance dates. These apply to the whole organisation.
Add a reminder
Click Add reminder (top right) to set a one-off or recurring reminder. Choose Every 3 years for NZ governance reviews.
Board Meetings
Create a meeting
Click New meeting (top right on any page). Set the title, date, type, and location. All board members are notified by email automatically.
Build the agenda
Inside a meeting, add agenda items in order. Each item can have a time allocation, type, and notes. Use the Template button to start from a ready-made agenda: a charity board meeting, a company board meeting, an AGM or a committee meeting, plus any agendas your organisation has saved itself. Applying one replaces the agenda you have, so it is best done on an empty one. To reuse an agenda you like, open the meeting and choose Save as (next to Template): it is kept for every board in your organisation, with the items, types and times but not the notes, and you can delete it again from the Template list. Copy from lets you reuse the agenda of an earlier meeting instead.
Reorder agenda items
Drag any agenda item to a new position using the grip handle (⠿) on its left edge. Drop it where you want it and the order saves instantly — no page reload needed. Sub-items and the papers attached to an item have a smaller grip handle too (it appears once there are two or more), so you can put them in order the same way. The numbers (3.1, 3.2 …) update as you move them.
Indent and outdent agenda items
Turn any top-level item into a sub-item by clicking the → indent button (shown on all items except the first). To promote a sub-item back to the top level, click ← outdent. Sub-items are nested under their parent and appear indented in the agenda. Maximum two levels of nesting. To add several sub-items in a row, type each one in the Add sub-item box on the item and press Enter or +: you stay on the same item with the cursor back in the box, ready for the next.
Taking notes together
Only one person edits an agenda item's notes at a time. If someone else is already on that item you will see "[Name] is taking notes on this item" and their words appearing live — this is normal, not an error. Click Take over if you need to write instead. The Chair and the Secretary can work on different items at the same time without any of this.
Notes cannot be overwritten
If two people ever do end up saving the same item at once, BoardHQ refuses the second save rather than letting it overwrite the first. Your text stays on screen so you can copy anything you need. Every change is also snapshotted — use Note history on any item to see previous versions and restore one.
Undo and redo in editors
The agenda notes editor and the minutes editor both have ↩ Undo and ↪ Redo buttons in the toolbar. Keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Z (undo) and Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z (redo) also work.
My action items on the dashboard
Each task on your dashboard names the board it belongs to, next to that board's coloured dot, so it is clear which board a task is for when you sit on several. Click the task's name to open it on the Actions page with its editor already open: change the wording, who has it, the due date or the note, then Save.
Everything under its agenda item
The agenda list on the left shows papers, resolutions and action items beneath the item they belong to, numbered like 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 — so each has a reference you can quote in the room. The colour tells you the type: amber is a document, violet a resolution, green an action. Click any of them to jump straight to it.
Remove an agenda item
Click the trash icon on the right of any agenda item to delete it. Sub-items are removed too. You'll be asked to confirm first.
Approve the previous minutes
When a board has minutes from its last meeting, the next meeting shows a banner. Click Add to agenda for approval — BoardHQ adds a confirmation item, a draft resolution to confirm them, and a Matters Arising section with any open action items.
Resolutions and voting
Add a resolution under any agenda item. Record who moved it and who seconded it, and optionally set a quorum — the minimum votes required for the result to be valid. Open it for online voting, members click For, Against, or Abstain, then Close to tally the outcome automatically.
Email members to vote
Members not all online? Click Email members to vote on a resolution. Each board member gets an email with a secure link to vote For, Against, or Abstain — no login needed. They can change their vote while voting is open, and results tally just like in-app votes.
Record a decision in the room
Still not possible to gather votes? The chair or an admin can record the outcome directly: under any resolution, open "Record decision in the room", add a note (e.g. "Carried by general consent, 6 present"), and mark it Passed or Failed. The note appears on the resolution and flows into the minutes.
Generate minutes in one click
After the meeting, open the Minutes tab and click Generate from agenda. BoardHQ drafts minutes from every agenda item — notes, resolutions with vote results, and action items. Edit freely; they auto-save every 30 seconds.
Tasks straight off an agenda item
Open any agenda item or sub-item and use its Action items box to record a task as it comes up — type it, pick who owns it, and add. It appears under that item in the agenda, on the assignee's dashboard, in the action list, and carries into the next meeting as Matters Arising.
Action items at the foot of the minutes
On the Minutes page, use the Action items panel to record tasks coming out of the meeting — type the task, pick who owns it and a due date, then Add. These are tracked tasks: they appear on the dashboard and action list, carry into the next meeting as Matters Arising, and are included at the foot when you generate the minutes.
A meeting stays open after it ends
Marking a meeting complete no longer closes it. You can still write up notes, add action items and record resolutions afterwards — which is when most of that work actually happens. Nothing locks until you finalise the minutes.
Finalising the minutes
Click Lock as official record in the minutes editor. This locks them and emails a copy to every member. An admin can still correct a mistake afterwards — see below — so finalising is safe to do as soon as the minutes are ready.
Correcting finalised minutes
Spotted an error after circulating them? An admin can still edit finalised minutes, but you must say what you are correcting. BoardHQ keeps the previous wording, who changed it and why, and shows the list of corrections on the minutes page — so the record of the change is part of the record.
Confirming the minutes — permanent
Boards confirm the minutes of the previous meeting as a true and correct record. When the board passes a resolution to confirm them at its next meeting, they become confirmed. An admin can also use Confirm minutes on a finalised meeting, for a board that confirmed them in the room or by email: BoardHQ records who did it. Either way that is the end of the line: nobody can edit them again, not an admin and not a superadmin, because changing them afterwards would misstate what the board agreed. Raise any later correction at the next meeting instead.
Meeting updates
If you edit a meeting's date, time, or location, all members are automatically notified by email.
Members & Roles
Record a vote for a member
On an open resolution, admins and chairs see Record a vote for a member. Use it for someone who voted by phone or in the room, or a manual member who cannot sign in. Pick For, Against or Abstain. The vote counts like any other and is labelled recorded by you on their behalf, in the resolution and in the generated minutes. It is final: once recorded, nobody, including that member, can change it. A member who has already voted for themselves is not offered.
Attendance
Under the meeting header, admins and chairs use Record Attendance to mark each board member Present, Apology or Absent, manual members included. The minutes and the exported PDF list them. You can correct attendance until the minutes are finalised, and every change is written to the audit log. After that it is fixed along with the minutes.
Deleting your organisation
Admins can delete the organisation from Settings. You type its exact name, then confirm a second time that you want to permanently delete it. It is hidden and locked straight away and everyone in it loses access, but it is held for 14 days: during that time a BoardHQ super admin can restore it exactly as it was (email support@boardhq.net). The organisation's admins are emailed the date it will be removed. After 14 days everything is permanently removed (meetings, minutes, documents, uploaded files and members' access), your subscription is cancelled, and people who belonged to no other organisation lose their account. Export anything you want to keep first.
Add Manual Member
Some trustees, elders or officers never accept their invitation, which leaves nobody to assign a task to. On the Team page, Add Manual Member records them by name (an email address is optional). A manual member cannot sign in and is never emailed, but you can assign tasks to them, add them to boards, and name them as mover or seconder. They show a Manual badge. If you add an email you can use Invite to log in later: when they accept, their tasks, board seats and anything else recorded against them carry over to their real account, with no duplicate. Manual members do not count towards any member limit. Admin and chair roles need a login, so they are not offered.
Edit a person
On the Team page, the pencil on any row opens the full edit screen. Admins can change their name, sign-in email, role in the organisation, phone, position and notes, and tick the boards they sit on with a separate role on each (Member, Chair, Secretary, Consultant or Observer). A board has one chair, so choosing Chair replaces the current chair. Unticking a board takes them off it, but their past votes and tasks stay. Passwords are never shown or changed. A sign-in email can only be changed for someone who belongs to this organisation alone: they are emailed at the old and the new address and the change is written to the audit log. Phone, position and notes are seen only by this organisation's admins. A Consultant (a role in the organisation, and also a role on a board) is a non-voting adviser: they can take part and be given tasks, but their vote is not counted. You cannot change your own role or sign-in email here.
Invite someone
Go to Team → Invite member. Enter their email and pick a role. They receive an email with a secure link.
Chair
Highest authority on the board. Full voting rights and admin access.
Treasurer
Financial oversight role. Full voting rights.
Director / Trustee / Officer
Voting board members.
Member / Observer
Member can participate, Observer can only view. Neither can vote.
Admin
Manages settings, members, and billing. Does not need to be a board member.
Documents
Upload a document
Go to Documents → Upload. Supports PDF, Word, Excel, and most common file types.
View documents
Office files open in a built-in viewer — no download needed.
Comments
Leave comments on any document. Useful for board review before a meeting.
Pop out a document
Open a paper from the agenda and click Pop out — it opens in its own window, at full size, which you can drag to a second screen. The meeting page stays where it was, so you can read the document and type your comment at the same time. Clicking Pop out again on the same paper brings that window forward rather than opening another.
Comment without leaving the agenda
Open a paper from the agenda and the comment box sits directly under the preview — read it and add your note in the same place. Comments are visible to everyone on the board, and a paper that has any shows a small count beside it in the agenda list. They stay with the document rather than going into the minutes, so the minute-taker decides what belongs in the record. You can delete your own comment; an admin can delete any.
Attach to a meeting
When uploading, link the document to a specific meeting so members can find it easily.
Attach to a sub-item
Pick the exact agenda item the paper belongs to, sub-items included — the list shows them numbered, so 3.7.2 is offered as well as 3.7. The document then appears under that item in the agenda, and opens in a viewer beside it when clicked.
Move or re-file a document
Open a document and click Edit to change its name, description, category, or the meeting and agenda item it belongs to. Nothing is re-uploaded and comments are kept.
Backup data Admin only
Download a full backup
Go to Organisation → Backup data and click Download. BoardHQ creates a ZIP file on the spot — no waiting.
Minutes as PDF
Every meeting's minutes are exported as a PDF. PDFs are read-only and timestamped, so they serve as the official record.
Resolutions, tasks & members
The ZIP also includes a CSV of all resolutions with vote counts, all action items, and your current member list.
Back up regularly
BoardHQ is a working tool, not a long-term archive. Download a backup at least once a year and store it safely — for example in Google Drive or a shared folder.
Your account
Switch boards
If you belong to multiple organisations, click any board chip on the dashboard or use the switcher in the sidebar.
Two-factor authentication
Admins and Chairs are required to set up two-factor authentication (2FA) before accessing the app. You'll be guided through it automatically on first login — scan the QR code with Google Authenticator, Authy, or 1Password, enter the 6-digit code to confirm, and you're done. Keep your secret key somewhere safe in case you lose your device.
Subscription
Admins can view the current plan, what has been used, choose monthly or annual billing, update their card, see invoices and cancel under Organisation → Subscription (Manage subscription). There are three levels: Community (1 board, 6 members, free for 12 months) and Large Charity (3 boards, 8 members, free for 6 months) for registered charities, and Large Company (5 boards, unlimited members, free for 3 months). When signing up, a charity or company gives its registration number (for example a New Zealand CC number or NZBN, or the Australian equivalent). No card is needed for the free period, and we email the admins 60, 30 and 7 days before it ends. Subscribing during the free period keeps the rest of it: nothing is charged until it ends. People beyond the member allowance of a level cost $10 a month ($100 a year) each, from the end of the free period, and every role counts (Secretary, Consultant and Observer too). The board limit of a level is firm: to add another board, switch to a higher level on the Subscription page. If the free period ends or a subscription lapses, BoardHQ becomes view-only: everything can still be read and downloaded, but nothing can be changed until a plan is chosen. Plans renew automatically; if you cancel you keep access to the end of the period you have paid for. If a payment fails, access stays open for 7 days while it is retried.