Timeline automations - Beginner

Platform discussions
, ,
1

Hi All.

I think I’m trying to do two things that are probably very easy, but I’m a Monday newbie, and have tried a couple of routes that have so far failed! :slight_smile:

USE CASE
I aim to create a Board for each one of my clients (e.g. 10 clients) with a single Group to (start with) called Projects. Within each Group, I need to be able to illustrate blocks of time (on a timeline rather than gantt) for each Item throughout the year (10-15). The projects (Items) will each be 3 weeks long - always.

So the Heirachy would be:

  • 1 Board = For each client, within which;
  • 1 Group  = For Projects (up to 15).

For each Group, I have the following columns so far;

  •     Item Name (for each Project)

  •     Person (which I have automated to always be me)

  •     Status

  •     Delivery Date (End date of each project)

Then I’m guessing I also need a Timeline column and a Number (duration column)?

AUTOMATIONS
1st Automation - Automate the Start date
I know what the Delivery Date for each project will be throughout the year. So I just need to be able to automate the start date to be 21 days prior to the Delivery Date for each Item, and have these figures drive the timeline for each Item (Project).

  • E.g. Delivery Date is Nov 28, so Timeline should illustrate a block of time for Nov 7 - Nov 28.

2nd Automation - Change Status if within 2 weeks of Delivery Date
[EDIT: I have this 2nd Automation Working - easier than I thought!]
On the same Group, for each project, I’d like to automate a change to the status column to “2 Weeks To Go”, and send a notification to an email address, IF it is within 14 days of the Delivery Date and the current status is still “Not Started” (which is the default status).

(After this, I plan to build a dashboard for multiple boards, but that can be another question :+1: )

Please can someone help me with this. I imagine this is simple when you know how as everyone keeps telling me the possibilities are endless with Monday.

P.S. I’ve been told to avoid integrations as they can prevent automations down the line.

Thanks!

T1mb0 :slight_smile:

2

Hey there! Charlotte here from the monday team! I’d be happy to help make some suggestions here! :smiling_face:

For your first automation, I actually think you could set this up with dependencies instead! You will want to set up the first item’s date and timeline manually so the rest of the items’ dependencies can intuit the timeframe needed but then it should be simple!

Check out this information about dependencies and let us know what you think!

Does this help you achieve what you’re looking for? We’d love to help you figure this out so let us know if we misunderstood what you need! :blush:

3

Hi Charlotte! Thanks for reaching out. I really would like to get this sorted as it would really help me. Unfortunately the plan that I am on is Standard and not Pro, so I cannot utilise Dependencies.

Ultimately, where I want to get to is:
To be able to add an item/task to the Group, give it a Delivery Date, and from there, the Timeline column is automatically populated based on:

  • Delivery Date (end date) and;
  • a start date based on the number column set to -21 as a default (I am alotting 21 days to each task).

PLease help!