We are using a structure in Monday where a “People” column is linked across a number of boards:
Users: declares user name, a “People” column (with that person linked), role (Account Executive/Account Manager) and their Slack ID (for direct Slack notifications)
Billing Entities: links Billing Entities to Account Executives
Advertising Accounts: links an Advertising Accounts to Billing Entities
Orders: links Orders to Advertising Accounts
Launch Requests: links Launch Requests to Orders (last check of credit check, invoice issued, etc…)
User information of the Account Executive, such as their “People” column and Slack ID tricke down throughout the entire structure via Connected Boards and Mirrored Columns.
We need to be able to notify the respective Account Executive directly in case there has been an Order Launch Request created in the respective board. However, “notify” action under automations does not appear to recognize the mirrored “People” column (the “People” column that has trickled down all the way: Users > Billing Entities > Advertising Accounts > Orders > Launch Requests). Right now we have to notify the entire “Sales” team of such requests (as team notification is as narrow as I can get with current Automations functionality), but that is far from ideal as these unnecessatily bother the entire team and don’t serve their primary purpose - to let the Account Executive know that there’s a request pending for a launch of an Order belonging to their Advertising Account.
There are 3P solutions that would solve this (VLOOKUP auto-link app), but I don’t feel we should pay extra for a functionality that should - in our opinion - be built in into the core Monday.com app.
Is the above a limitation of automations (or are we missing something)? Is there a workaround? If it is a limitation, is it in the pipeline for implementation and if not, would it be possible to add it as a feature request?
Mirror columns can be seen as a visual representation of data living somewhere else. The mirror column itself does not hold that data and therefore standard automations will not work. This is a limitation of the way mirror columns are implemented and some 3P developers has solved this by avoiding mirror columns and copy / sync data between boards. On of those is: https://monday.com/marketplace/129
You’re absolutely right!
There’s an app called vLookApp that does exactly what you need, it’s just like a regular spreadsheet LookUp function only for Monday.
Oh, and the best part, it’s free
Here’s a little explanation on how to use this recipe:
Hi Yoggie, thanks for you recommendation! I’ve installed your app and have been trying to set up the integration, but the value just wouldn’t show up in the column.
Do vlookups only get triggered on change in source column?
Can a “Person” value be returned to another “Person” column, or do you only support text and numbers?
Quick question on the column names, should the “Item name” column be typed in as “Item name” or “Name”? Technically I’ve tried both but couldn’t get it to work
Thanks for the idea. I’ve tried the integromat path, but couldn’t figure it out just yet, specifically it appears that each Monday.com module in integromat would require a specific item to be selected. May dig around a bit more.
Hi @Yoggie
I’m confused, you mentioned the VLookup only supports Text, but the use case is for notifying people in a mirrored People column. Did I missing something?
I thought I could solve this using general caster but didn’t seem to be able to cast the formula result to a people column. However, I came up with a workaround where I was able to cast the person from the mirrored people column into other column types and go from there.
General caster formula
When “column x” changes, perform formula {items mirrored people column} and cast result to “column y”
So I cast the salesperson name into a dropdown column since that column type is recognized in other Monday automations.
I then set up an automation when column changes (dropdown column) and only if dropdown column contains " " assign (name) as person.
It’s a little slow for all the steps to complete, but it’s working well. The main draw back is that I would have to manually configure this automation sequence for each sales person and in a scenario with a high volume of people/turnover it wouldn’t be practical. For our small/medium size group it’s worth the hassle to turn mirrored people into real people on this board so that more notifications and automations can be set up.
Did this ever get solved? I have the same issue but maybe a bit more simpler… I need to notify a persons ‘manager’ when they log a holiday request but the ‘manager’ column is mirrored from the employee directory so i am unable to set up notification automation on the ‘holiday request’ board. Please help…
