At Monday.com, I’m now working on streamlining a project procedure that includes multiple clearance stages from various departments, including marketing, legal, and finance. As much as possible, I would like to automate the process so that, if an item is authorised at one level, it automatically advances to the next and alerts the appropriate team.
I have looked into a few of the built-in automation possibilities, but I’m not sure which structure would work best—should I use a single board with several status columns for approval from each department, or is it preferable to divide the process across several boards and connect them?
I am also interested in how other people have responded to requests for revisions or rejections during the approval process. Do you automatically return them to the original requester?
I’d recommend setting up an automated process with a Single board and multiple status columns for each department’s approval stage.
This approach offers clarity and better tracking since everything happens within one board. You can automate the movement between departments, ensuring that once an item gets approved in one stage, it moves to the next stage with a notification to the appropriate team.
The key here is to set up automations that trigger actions like moving items to different groups, changing status, or notifying the relevant team.
it’s efficient to send the rejected items back to the requester with a specific status that indicates the issue.
This allows the process to remain transparent and ensures that the relevant teams or individuals can take necessary actions without missing any detail. Setting up some condition-based automations, such as moving items back to the “Requestor” stage with a comment, could be a simple yet effective solution.
To streamline your project workflow with approvals from multiple departments, you can use Monday automation features. Consider creating separate boards for each department’s clearance stages, which can be connected with automations to move items forward automatically. For revisions or rejections, returning the item to the original requester is a common solution. If you’re looking to enhance your project management processes, platforms like Phonexa can also support automation and team collaboration needs.
Native:
Set up separate “status” columns for each approval, along with change “status” automations based on each other, and restrict permissions for each column as needed.
Apps:
Alternatively I highly recomen you explore “Workflow” by Spot-nik, this is very likely spot on what you are after.
Hi Rich,
You should check out the Workflow app - you can set custom permissions so that nothing advances without having the right approvals, and required columns, so that you have all the files, details, budget, whatever you need before progressing. Automations will ensure that the right people get notified, and a very clear step-by-step visual flow will let everyone know where the process stands in one quick glance. It’s a game-changer!