Copy formula result to other columns and trigger automations

Platform discussions monday apps & integrations
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Hey monday.com users! :waving_hand:

Ever felt the frustration of having a brilliant formula column that gives you the exact insight you need, but then just… sits there? You know, the one that tells you a project is “Over Budget,” a task is “Behind Schedule,” or an “SLA is Breached,” but it can’t actually do anything to trigger your next automated step?

You’re not alone! A top-requested feature and a major sticking point in monday.com’s native capabilities is the inability of formula column results to directly update other columns (like Status or Text) or kick off automations. This means manual steps, missed alerts, and bottlenecks in what should be seamless workflows.

The monday.com Challenge (The “Formula Dead End”):

Imagine this: You have a formula like IF({Actual Hours} > {Budgeted Hours}, “Over Budget”, “On Track”). Perfect! But monday.com’s automations can’t directly “listen” for a change in that formula column to, say, “When Formula Column changes to ‘Over Budget’, then notify the Project Manager.” The result is stuck, forcing you into manual workarounds or complex, fragile integrations.

The Formula PRO Solution: Bridging the Gap and Igniting Your Workflows!

Our Formula PRO app is built precisely to solve this. It acts as the bridge, taking the intelligence from your formulas and making it actionable throughout your monday.com boards. This unlocks powerful, dynamic automations that were previously impossible!

Let’s Set It Up: A Quick “Budget Alert” Example

Here’s how you can make your formulas come alive in minutes (no coding needed!):

  1. Board Setup (Your “Project Budget Tracker”):
  • Numbers Column: {Actual Hours}
  • Numbers Column: {Budgeted Hours}
  • Text Column: {Budget Status Output} (This is where our formula magic will land)
  • Status Column: {Project Action} (e.g., "Needs Review", "Approved", "On Track")
  • Group: "High Priority - Over Budget"
  1. Formula PRO Automation:
  • Recipe: Select “When column changes, execute formula and project result to column”.
  • Configuration:
    • Trigger: “When {Actual Hours} changes” (or {Budgeted Hours}).
    • Formula: IF({Actual Hours} > {Budgeted Hours}, “Over Budget”, “On Track”)
    • Project Result To: {Budget Status Output} (on the same item).
  • Why this is HUGE: This Formula PRO recipe takes the result of your calculation and writes it into a standard monday.com column ({Budget Status Output}). This column then becomes visible to monday.com’s native automations!
  1. Native monday.com Automations:
  • Automation 1: "When {Budget Status Output} changes to 'Over Budget', then change {Project Action} to 'Needs Review'."
  • Automation 2: "When {Project Action} changes to 'Needs Review', then move item to High Priority - Over Budget group."

See It In Action!

Update your {Actual Hours}. Formula PRO instantly calculates if you’re over budget and pushes that “Over Budget” text into your {Budget Status Output} column. monday.com immediately picks up this change, updates your {Project Action} status, and BAM! Your item is automatically moved to the “High Priority - Over Budget” group. No manual intervention, just seamless, intelligent automation.

The Impact? Game-Changing Efficiency:

  • Formula-Driven Automations: Your complex calculations now actively drive your workflows.
  • Real-time Decision Making: Get instant alerts and actions based on dynamic data.
  • Massive Time Savings: Eliminate manual data transfer and error-prone status updates.

Ready to supercharge your monday.com formulas and make them truly actionable? Get access to more functions than the native monday.com formula column supports like IFERROR, IFNA, SKIP, EMPTY and many more. And project formula column results to other columns like the mirror column, subitems, item names and much more.

:backhand_index_pointing_right: Add Formula PRO to your board for free.

Got questions or need a hand setting it up? Book a call

Or

Drop a comment below! Let’s get those boards working smarter, not harder! :down_arrow:

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Yesterday, I used a monday workflow to copy a formula result to a text column and trigger an automation. No apps were necessary for this to happen. While your app is impressive and will provide a lot of useful features, it doesn’t seem necessary in order to trigger an automation from a formula.

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Thanks for sharing your experience! It’s awesome that you found a way to make that native workflow work for you. monday.com is definitely getting more flexible with its automations.

You’re right that for a very basic formula copy, some users might find native workarounds. However, Formula PRO goes far beyond that in several key ways:

  • Advanced Formula Power: We support a much wider array of formula functions than native monday.com (like IFERROR, IFNA, SKIP, EMPTY) and many more, allowing for more robust calculations and error handling that simply aren’t possible natively.

  • Complex Projections: Formula PRO excels when your formulas involve nested logic, pull data from mirror columns, or need to be projected to more complex destinations like item names or subitem columns. These are scenarios where native automations often hit limitations.

  • 70+ Unique Automation Recipes: Beyond just formulas, Formula PRO offers a massive library of automation recipes that solve many other common monday.com pain points. For example, a highly requested feature we solve is the ability to copy an item to another board along with its entire Updates section (comments, files, activity log) – something monday.com doesn’t do natively and is a huge time-saver for handoffs and cross-team workflows.

We built Formula PRO to bridge the gaps where monday.com’s native features currently fall short, empowering users with more sophisticated automations and data manipulation capabilities. It’s about enabling workflows that aren’t otherwise possible without complex external tools.

Feel free to check out our app page or book a quick chat if you’d like to see some of these more advanced use cases in action!

Cheers.

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Wow — this is exactly the kind of solution I’ve been waiting for. I’ve run into that same “formula dead end” so many times — especially with budget alerts and SLA breaches. Formula PRO looks like a real game changer.

Love how you explained the setup so clearly too — makes it super easy to follow. Can’t wait to try it out on one of our high-priority boards!

Thanks for building this — and for sharing such a detailed walkthrough!

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Hi @WirkKarl

That’s so great to hear! I’m thrilled Formula PRO looks like the solution you’ve been waiting for, especially for those budget and SLA scenarios. You’re definitely not alone in hitting that “formula dead end.”

My goal was to make the setup as clear as possible, so I’m really glad that came across. We built Formula PRO precisely to tackle those frustrating limitations and make powerful automations accessible.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if any questions come up as you’re trying it out on your boards. I’m here to help, whether it’s setting up a specific workflow or just troubleshooting.

Thanks so much for the kind words and for planning to give it a try!

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How do you do this? I have been struggling with copying a url link I generated with a formula into a text column so I can send it out in emails. Product is Monday CRM.

And with all respect to the OP, I would really, really prefer to not add yet another integration to a product I already pay for that should really be able to do this very simple feature natively.

Thanks,

Mike

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Same question… I suppose it is only in workflows?

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Hi Mike,

I created a Workflow to copy the Formula result to Text. I also created an Automation that is triggered when the Text field changes (is populated with the Formula result).

Here are the steps and values.

Workflow

1. When Column Changes: This triggers the Workflow

Board: The board you are working with

Column: Column with change that will trigger the workflow. In my case, I chose a Status column

2. Get item data: This captures the data from the row, where the column changed

Board: The board you are working with (same as #1)

Item: Select “Refer to previous step”

-Value for “Item” should look something like: Item ID | Step 1

3. Change column value: This captures the result of the Formula column, converts it to text and places the text in the Text column.

Board: Same as #1 and #2

Item: Select “Refer to previous step”

-Value for “Item” should look something like: Item ID | Step 1

Column: Name of column you want to write the value to as text. This should be a Text column.

Set Value: Name of formula column

Automation: *An automation (to send the email) is triggered when the Text column changes (the formula result is copied into it). The value of the Text column should be the URL that was just created as text, using the Workflow above.

I hope this helps!

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Hi Ross, I don’t have workflow. is there any other way to copy a formula result to a text column?

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Hi Catherine,
As far as I know, Workflows is the only native way to do this.

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@RossAtl - I’ve been trying to do this for a long time, but I don’t see any option on workflows to select a formula column.

Can you confirm you are able to see a formula column as an option within workflows?

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Hi David, Yes, this is confirmed in our Enterprise account.

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I would like to be able to “check” a box in col A which will trigger a copy of the content in col B to Col C.

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You can use formula 2 Text