Table of contents
- Why monday.com automation matters for project teams
- Setting up basic approval notifications in monday.com
- Creating multi-stage approval workflows without technical skills
- Configuring status-based notification triggers
- Managing approval delays and follow-up reminders
- Common monday automations mistakes to avoid
- When to consider advanced automation solutions
Why monday.com automation matters for project teams
Best suitable for: Project managers and team leads managing approval-heavy workflows
Manual approvals kill project momentum. Someone submits a request, you get notified (maybe), you review when you remember, you approve or reject through email, then someone manually updates the status. You’ll repeat this hundreds of times monthly across your team.
The cost adds up fast. McKinsey research shows manual approval processes consume 20-30% of knowledge workers’ time. For a 50-person team, that’s roughly 10 full-time employees just managing approvals and status updates.
Monday.com automation eliminates manual work through digital workflows that handle recurring processes automatically. When someone changes a status to “needs approval,” notifications fire automatically. Approvers get alerted through email, mobile push, or in-app notification. Approved items move to the next stage without anyone clicking a button.
Impact on project timelines
Approval bottlenecks delay projects by days or weeks. Your designer finishes mockups but waits three days for client approval. Your developer completes a feature but waits for QA sign-off. Your finance team processes invoices but waits for manager authorization.
Automations monday com can cut approval cycle time by 60-70% according to Forrester research. Notifications reach the right people immediately. Reminders escalate after set periods. Everything moves faster without anyone manually tracking status.
Compliance and audit benefits
Every approval action gets logged automatically who approved what, when, and any comments provided. You’ve got complete visibility for audits or compliance reviews.
Compliance becomes automatic rather than manual. When your approval workflows enforce policy rules through automation, violations become nearly impossible. Budget approvals route through appropriate authority levels. Time-off requests check policy limits automatically. Purchase orders follow spending thresholds without exception.
Setting up basic approval notifications in monday.com
You’ll set up your first monday.com automation in under five minutes using the visual automation center.
Understanding automation building blocks
Every monday automation consists of three components: trigger (when something happens), condition (only if specific criteria are met), and action (then do something). You’ll combine these building blocks to create approval workflows.
Think of automations as “recipes” that tell monday.com exactly what to do. When status changes to “pending approval” (trigger), and the budget is over $5,000 (condition), notify CFO (action).
Accessing the automation center
Open any board where you need approvals and click “Automate” in the top-right corner. You’ll see monday.com’s automation center with dozens of pre-built templates for common workflows.
The automation center has three main tabs: Recommended (templates monday.com suggests based on your board structure), Create (build custom automations from scratch), and Manage (view and edit existing automations).
Search for “approval” in the template library to find ready-made approval workflows you can customize in seconds. Templates cover common scenarios like manager approval, multi-stage reviews, and budget-based routing.
Configuring when status changes triggers
Start with the most common approval automation: notification when status changes to specific value.
Click “Create from scratch” and you’ll see the automation builder interface. Click “When this happens” to select your trigger. Choose “When status changes to something” from the dropdown menu.
Select your status column probably labeled “Status” or “Approval Status.” Then pick the specific status value triggering notifications typically “Pending Approval” or “Needs Review.”
Now configure who gets notified. Click “notify someone” in the action section. You can notify the person in a specific column (like “Approver”), everyone subscribed to the board, specific team members, or board owners. For approval workflows, you’ll usually notify someone in an “Approver” or “Manager” column.
Customizing notification content
Customize the notification message by clicking the notification icon. The default message works fine, but personalization improves response rates. Include the item name, submitter, deadline, or any custom field values.
Keep messages clear and action-oriented: “New purchase order needs your approval click to review.” Avoid vague messages like “Status changed” that don’t provide context for urgency or required action.
You can include dynamic fields in notifications using curly brackets: {Item Name}, {Budget}, {Deadline}, {Submitter}. The notification pulls actual values when it sends, personalizing each message automatically.
Understanding automation action limits
Best monday com automations include understanding action limits. Monday.com counts each triggered automation as one action. Different pricing tiers include different action allowances:
Basic tier: 250 actions monthly Standard tier: 25,000 actions monthly Pro tier: 100,000 actions monthly Enterprise tier: 250,000+ actions monthly
Monitor your action usage through the automation center dashboard. If you’re consistently exceeding limits, consider consolidating multiple small automations into fewer comprehensive workflows, or upgrading your tier.
Creating multi-stage approval workflows without technical skills
Many approvals need multiple stages department manager approves first, then executive, then finance. You’ll build these multi-stage workflows using monday.com automation without writing any code.
Building sequential approval chains
Sequential approvals happen one after another. Items move from “Manager Approval” to “Executive Approval” to “Final Approval” systematically.
Set up a status column with all approval stages: Submitted, Pending Manager Approval, Pending Executive Approval, Pending Final Approval, Approved, Rejected.
Create your first automation: When status changes to “Pending Manager Approval,” notify person in “Manager” column. When they approve (change status to “Pending Executive Approval”), the next automation triggers automatically: notify person in “Executive” column.
The chain continues until reaching “Approved” status. At that point, trigger final actions notify original submitter, move item to different board, create tasks in another workspace, or send data to external systems through integrations.
Setting up conditional logic based on values
Not all approvals follow identical paths. Purchase orders under $5,000 might need only manager approval. Over $5,000 requires executive approval too.
Monday.com automation supports conditional logic using “only if” clauses. When status changes to “Pending Approval,” notify manager but only if budget is less than $5,000. If budget exceeds $5,000, notify both manager and executive simultaneously.
Create conditional logic based on any column: budget amounts, project priority, department, client type, or custom fields. Click “Add Condition” when creating automation and select which column to evaluate and what criteria to match.
Managing parallel approval paths
Sometimes multiple people need to approve simultaneously rather than sequentially. Design needs both creative director and brand manager sign-off. Budget needs both department head and finance controller approval.
Set up parallel approvals using multiple notification automations triggered by the same status change. When status changes to “Needs Approval,” notify person in “Creative Director” column AND notify person in “Brand Manager” column.
Track individual approvals using separate columns or subitems. Create “Creative Approved” and “Brand Approved” columns. When both show “Yes,” trigger automation to move status to “Fully Approved.”
Handling approval rejections and revisions
Rejections need different handling than approvals. When someone rejects an item, notify the submitter, maybe their manager, and move the item back to “In Progress” or “Needs Revision.”
Create automation for rejection workflows: When status changes to “Rejected,” notify person in “Submitter” column, notify person in “Submitter’s Manager” column, and move item to group “Needs Revision.”
Include rejection comments in the notification using the comment column or a long-text field. Submitters need to understand what needs fixing, not just that something got rejected.
Automatically archive rejected items after certain periods. When status is “Rejected” and last updated is more than 30 days ago, move item to “Archived” group or board. Keeps active boards clean without losing history.
Multi-step automation workflows
You can chain multiple actions onto single automations for complex workflows. After an item gets approved, you might want to create a task on another board, notify the finance team, update a budget tracker, and send a confirmation email all automatically.
Click the plus sign to the right of your first action to add additional actions. Each action happens in sequence, creating complete end-to-end workflows without switching between boards or sending manual messages.
Organizations managing complex approval workflows across multiple departments sometimes need capabilities beyond monday automations. Advaiya’s automation specialists help design enterprise-grade approval workflows that integrate monday.com with ERP systems, financial platforms, and compliance tools for seamless cross-system automation.
Configuring status-based notification triggers
Status columns drive most approval automations. Configure them correctly and everything flows smoothly. Set them up wrong and you’ll create notification chaos.
Customizing status columns for approval stages
Create status columns reflecting your actual approval process. Don’t use generic “To Do, Doing, Done” labels for approval workflows.
Better approval-specific statuses: Submitted, Under Review, Pending Manager Approval, Pending Executive Approval, Approved, Rejected, Needs More Info.
Use color coding intentionally. Gray for submitted items awaiting review. Yellow for items in approval process. Green for approved. Red for rejected. Visual status helps teams scan boards quickly without reading every label.
Limit status options to what you actually need. Too many status values create confusion. Most approval workflows need 5-7 statuses maximum. More than that and approvers struggle to understand where items are in the process.
Setting up escalation rules
Approvals sitting too long need escalation. If manager hasn’t approved after 24 hours, escalate to their director. If executive hasn’t approved after 48 hours, escalate to CEO.
Automations monday com handles escalations using time-based triggers: When status is “Pending Approval” and status not changed in 24 hours, notify person in “Director” column.
Create escalation chains for persistent delays. First escalation goes to direct manager. Second escalation (if still not approved after another 24 hours) goes to department head. Third escalation goes to executive team.
Include context in escalation notifications. Don’t just say “item needs approval.” Explain “Purchase order #1234 has been pending approval for 48 hours client is waiting on project start. Please review urgently.”
Managing approval permissions
Control who can change approval statuses through monday.com’s permission settings. You don’t want team members marking their own work as “Approved” when it needs manager review.
Restrict certain status changes to specific roles. Make “Approved” and “Rejected” statuses editable only by people in management or designated approver roles. Use permission groups to enforce this across all boards.
Set up board-level permissions too. Create separate boards or groups for different approval levels. Managers access department-level approvals. Executives see only items requiring executive approval. Finance team sees budget-related approvals.
Guest access works well for external approvers. Clients or vendors can receive approval notifications and respond without needing full monday.com accounts. They get email notifications with approve/reject options that update your board automatically.
Managing approval delays and follow-up reminders
Approvals get forgotten when people go on vacation, priorities shift, or notifications get buried. You need automatic reminder systems keeping approvals moving forward.
Automated reminder sequences
Start with gentle reminders after reasonable waiting periods. If approval hasn’t happened within 24 hours, send friendly reminder: “Just checking in approval request from yesterday still needs your review.”
Increase urgency with subsequent reminders. Second reminder (48 hours): “This approval is now overdue please review today.” Third reminder (72 hours): “Urgent: This approval is blocking project progress and needs immediate attention.”
Monday.com automation sends reminders using time-based triggers: When status is “Pending Approval” and status not changed in 24 hours, notify person in “Approver” column. Repeat similar automations for 48 hours and 72 hours with increasingly urgent messaging.
Space reminders appropriately based on approval type urgency. Daily reminders for time-sensitive approvals blocking active projects. Every 2-3 days for routine approvals. Weekly for low-priority items. Don’t spam approvers it trains them to ignore notifications.
Escalation to supervisors
When approvers don’t respond to reminders, escalate to their supervisors. Create supervisor column in your board mapping each approver to their manager. When approval overdue beyond set threshold, notify person in “Supervisor” column.
Include full context in escalation notifications. Supervisors need to know what needs approval, why it’s urgent, how long it’s been waiting, and what’s being blocked. “Sarah’s approval on Q4 marketing budget has been pending for 5 days project launches next week and creative team is blocked waiting for budget confirmation.”
Give supervisors authority to approve in place of direct reports when necessary. Sometimes people are legitimately unavailable sick, vacation, dealing with emergency. Supervisors can move things forward rather than letting approvals languish.
Deadline-based notifications
Approvals tied to project deadlines need deadline-aware notifications. If project launches Friday and approval still pending Thursday, urgency is significantly higher than if you have two weeks remaining.
Set up deadline tracking: When deadline is in 48 hours and status is still “Pending Approval,” send urgent notification to approver, their supervisor, and project stakeholder highlighting the time constraint.
Automate deadline extensions when necessary. When deadline passes and status still pending, automatically extend deadline by set period (like 7 days), notify all stakeholders about the delay, and escalate to executive leadership for visibility into blocked projects.
Common monday.com automation mistakes to avoid
You’ll avoid problems that trip up most teams when setting up best monday com automations by understanding these common pitfalls.
Over-notification problems
Worst mistake: notifying everyone about everything. Too many notifications train people to ignore them all. You’ve created “notification fatigue” where important alerts get lost in noise.
Notify only relevant people for each automation. Approver gets approval request. Submitter gets approval/rejection notification. The project manager gets a summary of all approvals. Nobody else needs constant updates about every status change.
Use notification batching for high-volume scenarios. Instead of 50 separate approval notifications throughout the day, send one digest at 9am: “You have 12 pending approvals, click to review all.”
Let users control notification frequency through personal settings. Some people want immediate alerts for every change. Others prefer daily summaries. Monday.com supports personal notification preferences educate your team on customizing their settings.
Incorrect permission settings
Second common mistake: not restricting who can change approval statuses. If anyone can mark items “Approved,” you’ve defeated the purpose of approval workflows entirely.
Lock down status columns using monday.com’s column permissions. Make “Approved” and “Rejected” statuses changeable only by designated approvers through permission groups. Regular team members can submit items and see status but can’t bypass approval requirements.
Audit your permissions quarterly. People change roles, responsibilities shift, and your permission structure needs updates. Regular permission reviews catch inappropriate access before it becomes a problem.
Missing fallback scenarios
What happens when the approver is on vacation? What if they leave the company? What if an approval request goes to the wrong person because of a data entry error?
Build fallback logic into automations. When status is “Pending Approval” and not changed in 5 days, notify the backup approver designated in a separate column. Include out-of-office handling in your approval process design.
Create approval backup assignments where each approver has designated backup. When primary approver is unavailable, backup receives notifications automatically after a reasonable waiting period.
Document your approval processes thoroughly. New team members need to understand how approvals work, who approves what, what happens during escalations, and what to do when things go wrong. Keep process documentation in monday.com board descriptions or linked in your company wiki.
Supported and unsupported columns
Certain column types aren’t supported in notification automations. Understanding these limitations prevents frustration when building workflows.
Columns not supported in notification field: Battery, Button, Country, Dependency, Formula, Progress Tracking, Time Tracking, Vote, Week, World Clock, Boards Relation, Mirror columns.
Columns not supported in any automations including item mapping: Auto Number, Button, Formula, Creation Log, Last Updated, Mirror columns, Sub-items, Connect Boards (limitation applies to mapping only).
Plan your board structure around these limitations. If you need to notify based on calculated values, create helper columns that capture formula results as text or numbers that automations can reference.
When to consider advanced automation solutions
Monday.com automation handles many approval scenarios effectively. But complex enterprise needs sometimes exceed what any single platform provides without additional integration.
Limitations for complex enterprise workflows
Monday.com works great for straightforward approval chains within single platform. When you need advanced capabilities multi-system integration spanning diverse platforms, complex compliance requirements with detailed audit trails, sophisticated resource management across departments, or enterprise-grade governance with granular controls you might hit platform limits.
Large organizations often need approvals spanning multiple systems. Purchase approval starts in monday.com, pulls budget data from ERP, checks vendor status in procurement system, routes through financial compliance platform, and updates accounting system after approval. Orchestrating across all these systems requires more sophisticated integration than basic monday.com automations provide.
Microsoft Power Platform for complex automation
Organizations heavily invested in Microsoft 365 ecosystem sometimes need tighter integration than monday.com provides alone. Microsoft Power Automate offers deep integration with Dynamics 365, SharePoint, Teams, and hundreds of other Microsoft and third-party platforms.
Power Automate extends beyond basic workflow automation to handle complex business processes spanning dozens of systems. You can build approval workflows that integrate monday.com with Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms, creating unified processes across your entire technology stack.
Dynamics 365 provides enterprise project management with built-in approval workflows, resource management, financial integration, and advanced compliance features. For organizations managing large project portfolios with complex approval hierarchies and strict regulatory requirements, Dynamics offers capabilities monday.com doesn’t provide natively.
Advaiya specializes in Microsoft-based automation solutions for organizations needing enterprise-grade workflow orchestration, approval management, and cross-system integration. When monday.com automation reaches limits for your growing needs, Advaiya’s team assesses your requirements and recommends appropriate solutions whether extending monday.com capabilities through Power Platform integration or implementing more robust enterprise automation platforms.
Peripheral automation approach
Advaiya’s peripheral automation methodology helps organizations identify which processes to automate on which platforms. Core business processes might run in ERP or CRM systems, while peripheral workflows around those processes can leverage simpler tools like monday.com for flexibility and ease of use.
This approach optimizes your automation investment by matching each process to the most appropriate tool rather than forcing everything into single platform. You’ll get faster implementation, lower total cost, and better user adoption compared to monolithic enterprise automation approaches.
Real-world approval automation examples
Let’s examine practical approval scenarios you’ll likely encounter and exactly how to automate them in monday.com.
Purchase order approvals with tiered thresholds
Purchase requests need different approval levels based on amount. Under $1,000: manager approval only. $1,000-$10,000: manager plus director. Over $10,000: full executive approval chain including CFO.
Set up status column: Submitted, Manager Review, Director Review, Executive Review, CFO Review, Approved, Rejected. Create number column for purchase amount.
Build conditional automations: When status changes to “Manager Review,” notify manager. When manager approves (changes to “Director Review”), check amount using “only if” condition. If amount less than $1,000, skip director and move directly to “Approved.” If amount $1,000-$10,000, notify director. Over $10,000, continue full approval chain through executive and CFO.
Content and creative approvals with parallel review
Marketing teams review dozens of content pieces weekly blog posts, social graphics, video scripts, email campaigns. Each needs stakeholder sign-off before publishing.
Create boards for different content types where each item represents one piece of content. Status columns track approval stages: Draft, Internal Review, Stakeholder Review, Final Approval, Published.
Add file columns for content attachments so reviewers see actual content in notifications they can click through to review without hunting through folders or separate systems.
Set up parallel approvals when multiple stakeholders must review simultaneously. Blog posts might need both content strategist and SEO specialist approval. Both receive notifications at the same time. When both approve their respective review columns, automation moves item to “Final Approval” for editor-in-chief.
Time-off and leave requests
HR teams manage vacation requests, sick leave, personal days. Approval workflows vary by company policy some need only manager approval, others require HR review too.
Create leave request board with date columns (start date, end date), number column (days requested), formula column (business days between dates), and status column (Submitted, Manager Review, HR Review, Approved, Rejected).
When an employee submits a request (creates a new item and sets status to “Submitted”), automation notifies their manager pulled from the People column. The manager reviews dates against the team calendar and project deadlines, then approves or rejects with comments explaining the decision.
If approved and duration exceeds a certain threshold (like 5 consecutive days), automatically notify HR for final review. HR verifies leave balance using integration with the HRMS system and confirms compliance with company policy before final approval.
FAQ
Q. Can I set up approval workflows in monday.com without a developer?
Yes, monday.com automation center provides drag-and-drop functionality for creating approval workflows without coding knowledge. Pre-built templates cover common approval scenarios, customize recipient names, status values, and notification timing. Complex workflows might need conditional logic, but you’ll build everything through a visual interface without writing code.
Q. How many approval stages can I create in monday.com?
You can create unlimited sequential approval stages in monday automations, though practical limits exist around complexity and action count consumption. Most workflows work best with 3-5 stages more than that and you’re probably over-complicating the process. For truly complex multi-branch approval hierarchies requiring 10+ stages with sophisticated business rules, you might need more robust enterprise workflow tools or Power Platform integration.
Q. What happens if an approver doesn’t respond to notifications?
Set up automated reminders and escalation rules using time-based triggers in automations monday com. Configure first reminder after 24 hours, second after 48 hours, escalation to supervisor after 72 hours. Designate backup approvers who receive notifications automatically when the primary approver doesn’t respond within a set timeframe, ensuring approvals never stall indefinitely.
Q. Can monday.com approval workflows handle different approval criteria based on amounts or values?
Yes, use conditional logic in best monday com automations to route approvals based on budget amounts, project priority, department, or any custom field value. Purchases under $5,000 might route to manager only, while purchases over $5,000 go through manager, director, and CFO. Add “only if” conditions to your automations specifying exact criteria when they trigger.
Q. Are monday.com approval workflows suitable for compliance-heavy industries?
Monday.com provides basic audit trails showing who changed what and when, which satisfies many business needs. Organizations with strict regulatory requirements (healthcare HIPAA compliance, financial services SOX compliance, government contracts) often need more sophisticated audit capabilities, data retention policies, granular access controls, and compliance reporting. For enterprise compliance needs beyond monday.com’s native capabilities, consider consulting with Advaiya’s compliance automation specialists about solutions offering advanced compliance features through Microsoft platforms or specialized enterprise workflow systems.
