Automation sent with incomplete information but if I add condition, it's not triggered

I have a very simple automation that I’ve tried with both 1. Automation and 2. Gmail Integration.

Basically it’s like this, when a new item is created, and the column next to it (Project) is not empty, notify someone.

My issue is that if I have the condition set in the automation (column not empty), no email or notification is sent.

If I remove the condition, the notification is sent immediately but all the additional data from the columns that I added to the email is missing since I didn’t even have time to enter it all.

What am I doing wrong? Is this some glitch? I found another topic similar to this but no one has responded yet.

Thank you!

Hey Savita, if you’re manually adding items to the board, the behavior you’re encountering would be expected.

For the first recipe, actions are only performed if a specific column is filled out at the time the item is created. When creating items manually, this column will initially be empty because you’re adding that info after creation, which doesn’t meet the recipe’s conditions.

For the second recipe, it’s still triggering immediately upon item creation. Therefore, if you add column info afterward, this data won’t be included in the automatically sent email since it’s sent right when the item is created, not after you update the columns.

To avoid this behavior, I would suggest considering creating items through a Workform, or change your trigger to “When column changes…” instead of “When item is created…”

Thank you Malia! This is very helpful!!