I have tasks with dependencies. The dependencies are set to strict. There is a timeline linked to a duration. It is automated with “When Status changes to Done, change the Status of its Dependency to In Progress”. So when I finish a task and change it to done, any of its dependents turn to In Progress and that works fine.
What I would like to do is have the dependents timeline start date update to the day it was changed to In Progress, regardless of if the independent task was finished on time, early or late.
Great question! Currently, Monday.com doesn’t automatically update the start date of a dependent task based on when it is set to “In Progress” via automation. However, you can work around this using custom automations and formulas or third-party integrations like Make.com (formerly Integromat) or Zapier.
Here’s a possible workaround inside Monday:
Add a Date Column – call it something like “Actual Start”.
Set up an Automation:
Use this custom automation:
When status changes to In Progress, set Actual Start to current date
Now, use this “Actual Start” date instead of the default timeline start when you’re tracking or reporting on timelines that begin when work actually starts, not when it was planned.
Why this works:
The timeline column won’t shift automatically based on status changes, but the “Actual Start” column will capture the real start date when the dependency becomes active. This helps you track how on time your workflow is without losing historical timeline data.
If you really need the timeline start date itself to shift (and not just display the actual start separately), then you’d need an external automation platform like Make.com, which allows more advanced logic, like:
Watch for status change → find the dependent item → update its timeline start to today.
I played around with some integrations without success, and pretty much ended up doing what you’ve suggested.
create 3 date columns - start date, due date completed date, as well as duration and timeline link.
Create an automation “when status changes to completed, set completed date to today”
Create automation “when status changes to completed, change status of dependencies to in process”
Create automation “when status changes to in process, set start date to today”
create automation “when start date changes, adjust due date by number of days in duration”
So when you finish a task you click complete, it fills in the completed date, then sets the dependencies to in process. This then sets the start date of those in process tasks to today, and sets the due date to today + duration.
I then can manually adjust the timeline to reflect the current situation, which isn’t ideal but not a big deal.