How can I use the Timeline Column as a "Date" in an Automation?

[mir4bell4 (Mirabella)]

How does using a timeline column as a “date” in an automation recipe work? For example, with the recipe “When date arrives, move item to group”

• If I use When date arrives at Hour, nothing happens, neither when the beginning of the timeline arrives, nor when the end of the timeline passes. I’ve tried this on multiple boards, and it just does not work.
• If instead I use X days before date arrives at Hour, will that trigger before the beginning of the timeline?
• Similarly, if I use X days after date arrives at Hour, will that trigger after the end of the timeline?

I’d like to know more about this functionality, not just for the above example, but also for other automation recipes (e.g. When date arrives… notify someone, archive the item, and status is, custom recipes, etc.)

[London (Kenji Usami)]

Hi,

I had the same issue (ie wanting to base an automation based on the ‘start date’ of a timeline instead of the ‘end date’) and it seems that monday.com currrently only takes the end date into consideration for timeline automations.
I also found this feature request so I’ve voted for it:)

Automations based on Timeline Start Date

Currently, Automations used against Timeline columns default to the End Date; For our use case we’d like to have the option to toggle to Start Date. We use Timelines to track customer-defined time periods, which vary in length. We’d like the notification to trigger an action prior to the customer’s window opening. We need notifications based on the Start Date so we have a consistent lead time for each Timeline entry. The lack of consistency impairs adoption of monday more fully in our organizati…

[London (Kenji Usami)]

I think another reason for confusion is the use of the term ‘arrives’ in timeline automations.(it should be (when timenline) ‘ends’

[danbarnes1066 (Daniel Barnes)]

If you’re still looking for a solution, or at least a better workaround, I’m testing the Start + End = Timeline app by Excellent Team in the Apps Marketplace. I asked the developers if they could reverse the main functionality- split a timeline into a Start Date Column and an End Date column, which they did. So I at least have a Start Date Column that I didn’t have to create manually, and that can be accessed with automations. Maybe this would work for your work flow?