monday.com Automation Compound Conditions: Status and Dropdown

Automation Pain Point #19: No AND/OR Logic

You need an automation that only fires when TWO conditions are met simultaneously—like when a status is “Ready” AND a dropdown is “External.”

monday.com’s native automation builder makes you choose: one status trigger OR one dropdown trigger. It doesn’t let you combine them. This is part of the broader monday.com cross-board automation limitations.

The result? Either your automation fires too often (triggering on status alone, even when the dropdown value is wrong), or you create multiple separate automations (one for each status-dropdown combination) and hope you remember to maintain all of them.

Meta Description

Use AND/OR logic in monday.com automations with compound conditions that check multiple columns. Work around the single-trigger limitation native automations have.

Related Articles

For more automation workarounds:

• One Trigger, Multiple Actions (Action Chaining)
• Conditional Email Templates Based on Column Values
• Use Pre-Conditions to Block Automations When Data Is Missing

The result? Either your automation fires too often (triggering on status alone, even when the dropdown doesn’t match), or you end up building multiple separate automations with fragile workarounds.

This isn’t a minor limitation. Over 11 community forum threads spanning 2020 to 2025 document users struggling with the same problem: Monday.com has no native AND/OR logic for combining multiple column checks in a single automation trigger. See our guide on monday.com if-then conditional automations for the complete workaround.

Here’s what BoardBridge does differently — and how monday.com users are currently working around this gap.

Table of Contents

• The Problem: No Compound Trigger Conditions
• What Users Need vs. What Monday.com Offers
• Real-World Example: Event Travel Management
• How BoardBridge Handles Compound Conditions
• The 7 Conditional Operators
• Workarounds for Native Monday.com
• When Native Automations Are Enough
• FAQ

The Problem: No Compound Trigger Conditions

Monday.com’s automation builder lets you add conditions to refine when an automation fires — but those conditions are limited to the Person column and Status column. You cannot check dropdown values, text columns, date columns, or any other column type as part of the trigger logic.

And even within status conditions, you can only check one status column. If your workflow depends on two columns being in specific states at the same time, you’re out of luck.

Community Evidence

From a November 2024 forum thread titled “How can I make if-this-then-that type automations on Monday?” [Source: https://community.monday.com/t/how-can-i-make-if-this-then-that-type-automations-on-monday/104022]:

“Monday does not have any automations that use conditional branching” — kindertech, November 27, 2024

No Monday.com staff responded. The only suggested solution was to use Make.com (a third-party integration platform).

From an August 2025 thread titled “Conditional automations” [Source: https://community.monday.com/t/conditional-automations/119503] (active as of this month):

“What I want to be able to do is have an automation that says When item is created and status is A, then create subitem with a status X, IF NOT then create a subitem with a status Y. Ideally there could be nested conditions so the logic would be more like: IF (status=A AND priority=High) THEN create subitem X, ELSE IF (status=A AND priority=Medium) THEN create subitem Y, ELSE create subitem Z.” — ccoles (Chris Coles), August 22, 2025

A community member confirmed:

“Right now, native Monday automations don’t support nested conditional logic (there’s no built-in ‘else’ branch).” — the-creative0 (Awe Ebenezer), September 2, 2025

February 2023 (2-Year Pattern):

“I have a 2 Groups (Active / Inactive) and a Status field with 7 values. I would like to have the Group changed automatically when the Status is changed (3 values will move/keep in Inactive, the other 4 in Active). I have managed to make it work but only by using 7 separate automations.” — Multiple condition in automations [Source: https://community.monday.com/t/multiple-condition-in-automations/50631]

A frustrated user’s response (still unanswered):

“I’m seeking to learn if something can be done, rather than asking how it can be done. I have a workform with many conditional questions, and if a certain combination of responses exist I want to take action 1 (i.e. send a particular email), but if a different combination of responses exist I want to take action 2. What I’m not sure about is how many column values I can combine to create a trigger, and then if the trigger can be conditional (i.e., send email A or email B).” — Multiple conditions, across many columns, trigger an automation

A Monday.com Ambassador acknowledged the limitation and pointed to Workflow Center (available only on Enterprise plans), but confirmed no native else branch exists even there.

Monday.com Staff Confirmation

From a July 2023 thread:

“Whilst we support the inclusion of the IF function in our custom automations, I am afraid this particular automation isn’t currently supported natively.” — BiancaT (Monday.com staff), July 2023

A frustrated user replied:

“I’m surprised a platform like this doesn’t have basic logic for it’s automations.” — ElliottK, September 2023

What Users Need vs. What Monday.com Offers

What Users Need

Scenario	Required Logic
Travel booking	Status = “Advanced” AND Trip Type = “Outbound”
Invoice approval	Status = “Ready for Finance” AND Amount > $10,000
Cross-team handoff	Status = “Completed” AND Team = “External Vendor”
Escalation workflow	Priority = “High” AND Days Open > 7
Conditional notifications	Status = “Pending Review” AND Assigned Person = Manager

What Monday.com Offers

• One trigger column (typically status)
• One optional condition (limited to Person or another Status column)
• No dropdown, text, date, or number column checks
• No compound AND logic across multiple conditions
• No OR logic (though “Is any of” was added in 2024 for checking multiple values in a single status column)

From a June 2024 forum thread titled “Use OR in automations” [Source: https://community.monday.com/t/use-or-in-automations/91050]:

“How would you go about triggering an automation with an OR vs an AND. In this case I want it to trigger if the Status is PTO OR No Travel.” — seandotson, June 25, 2024

The official Monday.com response from the Automations team:

Confirmed the Workflow Builder now supports “Is any of” for multiple values in status conditions — “the first step of supporting ‘OR’ condition.” — Maor Nakash (Monday.com Automations team), July 17, 2024

That’s as far as it goes. Multi-column AND logic remains unsupported.

Real-World Example: Event Travel Management

Let me show you a real scenario from one of my client projects managing event logistics for live shows.

The Workflow

When an event moves to the “Advanced” stage on the CRM board, the team needs to send a travel booking email to vendors and team members. But here’s the catch: they need to send DIFFERENT emails depending on whether it’s an Outbound trip or a Return trip.

The board has:

• Status column: “Won”, “Lodging”, “Advanced”, “Complete”
• Trip Type dropdown: “Outbound”, “Return”

The automation should only fire when:

• Status = “Advanced” AND
• Trip Type = “Outbound”

Then send the outbound travel email template.

A separate automation should fire when:

• Status = “Advanced” AND
• Trip Type = “Return”

Then send the return travel email template.

The Problem

Monday.com doesn’t let you check the Trip Type dropdown as part of the trigger. Your only options:

1. Fire on status change to “Advanced” — but this triggers for BOTH outbound and return trips, sending the wrong email half the time
2. Create a separate status like “Advanced Outbound” and “Advanced Return” — polluting your status column with workflow logic instead of actual project stages
3. Use Make.com or Zapier — adding $29-99/month to your stack for basic conditional logic

None of these are clean solutions.

How BoardBridge Handles Compound Conditions

BoardBridge evaluates multiple conditions with full AND/OR logic before firing any action.

Here’s how the event travel scenario works with BoardBridge:

Step 1: Define the Trigger

• Trigger type: Status change
• Trigger column: Status
• Trigger value: “Advanced”

Step 2: Add Compound Conditions

Condition 1:

• Column: Trip Type (dropdown)
• Operator: equals
• Value: “Outbound”

Condition 2 (optional):

• Column: Confirmation Status
• Operator: is_not_empty
• Value: (any value present)

Condition logic: AND (all conditions must pass)

Step 3: Define the Action

• Action: Send email
• Template: Outbound Travel Email
• Recipient: Pulled from the “Vendor Email” column
• CC group: “Logistics Team”

When the status changes to “Advanced”, BoardBridge checks:

1. Does Trip Type = “Outbound”? ✓
2. Is Confirmation Status filled in? ✓

Both pass → Email sends.

If Trip Type is “Return”, Condition 1 fails → No email sends. A separate automation handles the return scenario with its own template.

This is one automation per email type, not seven fragmented rules.

The 7 Conditional Operators

BoardBridge supports 7 comparison operators across all column types:

Operator	Description	Example Use Case
equals	Exact match (case-insensitive for text)	Status = “Advanced”, Trip Type = “Outbound”
not_equals	Anything EXCEPT this value	Status ≠ “Cancelled”
contains	Substring match (text columns)	Client Name contains “Smith”
starts_with	Prefix match	Email starts with “support@”
ends_with	Suffix match	File Name ends with “.pdf”
is_empty	Column has no value	Vendor Email is empty (block email if true)
is_not_empty	Column has any value	Confirmation Date is filled in

AND vs. OR Logic

• AND (default): All conditions must pass. Use this when you need “Status = X AND Dropdown = Y AND Date is filled”.
• OR: Any single condition passing is enough. Use this when you need “Priority = High OR Days Open > 7″.

Each automation rule can use one logic type — AND or OR. For complex workflows that need both, create separate automations and coordinate their actions.

Workarounds for Native Monday.com

If you’re not ready to add BoardBridge to your workspace, here are the three most common workarounds monday.com users employ:

Workaround 1: Status Column Explosion

Create separate status labels for every combination of conditions.

Instead of:

• Status: “Advanced”
• Trip Type: “Outbound” or “Return”

Use:

• Status: “Advanced – Outbound” and “Advanced – Return”

Pros: Works with native automations Cons: Your status column becomes a mess. “Advanced – Outbound”, “Advanced – Return”, “Lodging – Outbound”, “Lodging – Return” — it scales terribly. Status columns should represent project stages, not workflow logic.

Workaround 2: Intermediate Helper Columns

Use a formula column to combine multiple checks into one status-like result.

Example:

• Formula: IF(AND({Status}="Advanced", {Trip Type}="Outbound"), "Trigger Outbound Email", "")
• Automation: When “Helper Column” changes to “Trigger Outbound Email”, send email

Pros: Keeps your main status column clean Cons: Formula columns are invisible to automations in many cases (they’re calculated client-side, not server-side). Monday.com staff and community members have confirmed this limitation repeatedly. Even when formulas do work, debugging is painful.

Workaround 3: Third-Party Platforms (Make.com, Zapier)

Use an external automation platform that pulls data from Monday.com, evaluates conditions, and triggers actions.

Pros: Full conditional logic (AND, OR, nested if/else) Cons:

• Extra cost: $29-$99/month depending on usage
• Complexity: Requires learning a new platform
• Reliability: Another integration point that can break

From a February 2023 thread titled “Multiple condition in automations”:

“I have managed to make it work but only by using 7 separate automations. Is there a way to consolidate to 1 or max 2?” — vballas (Vagelis Ballas), February 2, 2023

No Monday.com staff responded. The thread remains unresolved.

When Native Automations Are Enough

Not every workflow needs compound conditions. Monday.com’s native automations work perfectly fine when:

• You’re triggering on a single status change with no other dependencies
• You need simple actions like “notify person” or “move to group”
• Your workflow is linear (one trigger → one action, no branching)
• You don’t need CC/BCC on email notifications
• You’re okay with creating multiple automations for different scenarios

For these cases, stick with native automations — they’re fast to set up and require no additional tools.

What This Means for Your Workflows

Compound conditions turn fragile multi-automation setups into single, reliable rules. Instead of juggling separate automations for every status-dropdown combination, you define the exact scenario once — Status = X AND Dropdown = Y — and the system enforces it.

For teams managing event logistics, vendor workflows, approval processes, or any scenario where multiple data points determine the next action, this is the difference between automation that works and automation that creates more work.

BoardBridge — Form & Workflow Automation for monday.com handles compound conditions out of the box. If your workflows depend on more than one column being in the right state at the right time, it might be worth a look.

About the Author

Written by the team at BoardBridge by TaskRhino — we build form and workflow automation for monday.com teams that need more than the platform’s native features can offer. Need help setting up conditional automations? Book a free 30-minute consultation.