Is there an automation to create a subitem when a column is updated? I have a board that items are added on via a form. I have it set for when and items are created, and the dropdown column contains these values to create a subitem. However, if the item is already on the board, and the dropdown column (another value is added after the fact), I can’t figure out a way automate the subitem creation.
The subitem is where the item is assigned to a person for approval. For example, Key X was requested, but they also now need Key Y. Key Y is updated on the board (not from the initial creation), but I can’t get the subitem created so that it can go through the approval notification process. If that makes sense.
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Hi Sarah,
So do I understand you correctly if you want Subitems to be created depending on what options the user select in (for example) a dropdown field in a form? And how many options do you want to offer?
Would it be an option to manually mark an incoming item as “verified” once you are certain no extra options will be added? The reason I ask is because the automations that we would use for this are not aware of any existing subitems. So if you’d create subitems when the main item is created, and make a change afterwards, the same subitems will be created a second time as at that time the automation doesn’t know which have been created, and which haven’t.
Best,
Maarten
Yes, you are correct and that is the problem I’m running into. After the initial item has been created and another dropdown item is added it duplicates the subitems that had already been created.
So, I think the way that I could do this is to create additional columns for options that are added after the fact as sometimes those options are needed months later when a person changes roles in our organization (a lot more automations if I can get it to work correctly). Or… Just have line items for every change for the same person (not ideal as the board will eventually max out and stop working).
Thank you for your input. It helps to know that I was thinking this through correctly.
That’s indeed an option but it depends on how many different subitems you have as every one of those will require an extra column which could become lot’s of comments afterall.
While it isn’t possible to handle it without duplicates using a dropdown column in monday itself, there are options with platforms like make.com. I’ll send you a DM to discuss this in more detail.
Hey @sarah.thebay.church,
We developed an app called subitem automations that provides robust automation capabilities to subitems. Here’s an example of how it can be applied in this case using a status column →
You can find it in the monday.com marketplace in the platform or here - https://monday.com/marketplace/10000287
Hope that helps!
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You could also possibly use the SubItem Automation…
“When column changes on an item, change its subitems’ column to the same value”
Unfortunately, this doesn’t work the way that I want it to. It created a subitem with the name of status. I need it to create a subitem when a dropdown column changes with the value of the change/additional info.
This will not work as I need it to create a subitem for the additional value.
Hey @sarah.thebay.church - this is a tricky one for sure. Have you considered looking into make.com to manage this? A couple of quick scenarios in make would easily manage this challenge.
We find that upwards of 70% of our clients are now utilizing integration platforms such as make or zapier to make monday work better, and this is a prime example.
We would be happy to help you out as well if you needed a hand.
Thanks @sarah.thebay.church ,
Mark