monday.com Automation Target Specific Group on Board

Boards Pain Point #51: No dynamic group routing

When you create a new item on a Monday.com board via automation, you want control over which group it lands in. If you’re creating a travel booking, it should go into the “Outbound Travel” group, not the “Lodging” group. If you’re adding a confirmed band member to a roster, they should appear in the “Confirmed” group, not “Pending.”

The Monday.com limitation: Native cross-board automations create items in the default group (usually the top group on the board). You can’t specify “create item in the ‘Confirmed’ group” dynamically. You also can’t prevent duplicate items from being created in the same group — Monday.com’s duplicate prevention is board-wide, not group-aware. This is one of many monday.com cross-board automation limitations.

What you actually need:

• ✓ Create items in specific groups by name (not just the default group at top)
• ✓ Group name auto-resolves to monday.com’s internal group ID
• ✓ Group-aware duplicate prevention (same item can appear in multiple groups, but not twice in one group)
• ✓ Dynamic group routing (conditions determine which group an item lands in)
• ✓ Multiple automations handling different group targets from one source board

Meta Description

Create monday.com items in specific groups by name with dynamic routing and group-aware duplicate prevention. Control item placement, not just default groups.

Related Articles

For more on smart item routing:

• Status Changes Create Items on Another Board (with Compound Conditions)
• How to Prevent Duplicate Items with Smart Deduplication
• Conditional Item Creation Based on Multiple Criteria

The Monday.com Group Limitation: Items Go to Default Group

What Are Groups on Monday.com?

Groups are organizational sections within a board. They’re like “categories” or “buckets” for items.

Example board: Band Confirmations

• Group 1: Pending (band members who haven’t responded)
• Group 2: Confirmed (band members who confirmed attendance)
• Group 3: Declined (band members who declined)
• Group 4: Cancelled (cancelled attendees)

Use case: When a band member’s status changes to “Confirmed,” you want to move them from “Pending” group to “Confirmed” group.

What Monday.com’s Native Automations Can Do

Monday.com’s automation center includes a “Move item to group” action:

• “When status changes to X, move item to group Y”
• You manually select the target group from a dropdown

This works for single-board item movement. But it doesn’t work for cross-board item creation.

The Cross-Board Creation Limitation

When you use a cross-board automation like “When status changes on Board A, create item on Board B,” the item is created in the default group on Board B (usually the topmost group).

Official Monday.com documentation on cross-board automations:

“When creating items on another board via automation, the item will be created in the default group.”

There is no “create item in specific group” option in the native automation builder.

Source: https://support.monday.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011393900-Cross-board-automations

Community Evidence: Users Need Group-Specific Item Creation

Thread: “Duplication of Items in the same Board (between Groups)” (March 2025)

User describes automation creating items hundreds of times:

“When it comes to duplicating items within the same Board and having them move to a different Group, my automation runs steady and copies my item hundreds of times and will not stop until I turn off the automation – what I want is only one duplication (per group), and it auto-moved to its corresponding group.”

The user wants group-aware duplicate prevention — create one item per group, not hundreds.

Source: https://community.monday.com/t/duplication-of-items-in-the-same-board-between-groups/110743

Thread: “Auto-copy items from one board to another” (November 2023)

User wants to copy roster items from one board to another into specific groups based on item properties. Monday.com’s native automation doesn’t support this.

Suggested workaround: Use Monday.com’s “move item to group” automation after creating the item. This requires two separate automations (one to create, one to move), which is inefficient and creates a brief moment where the item is visible in the wrong group.

Source: https://community.monday.com/t/auto-copy-items-from-one-board-to-another/71321

How BoardBridge Solves This: Group-Aware Item Creation

BoardBridge’s automation engine supports target group specification when creating items on other boards. You can specify the target group by name, and the system auto-resolves it to Monday.com’s internal group ID.

Step-by-Step: How Group-Specific Item Creation Works

Example workflow:

Board 1: Band Confirmations

• Groups: Pending, Confirmed, Declined, Cancelled

Board 2: Travel Bookings

• Groups: Outbound Travel, Return Travel, Cancelled Travel

Desired automation:

• When band member status changes to “Confirmed” on Band Confirmations
• AND Event Type = “Show + Travel”
• THEN create item on Travel Bookings board in the “Outbound Travel” group

How BoardBridge handles this:

1. Automation configuration

• Trigger: Status “Confirmation Status” changes to “Confirmed” on Band Confirmations board
• Condition: Event Type dropdown = “Show + Travel”
• Action: Create item on Travel Bookings board
• Target Group: “Outbound Travel”

1. Group name resolution

• When the automation fires, BoardBridge queries Monday.com’s API for the Travel Bookings board structure
• Retrieves all groups and their IDs:
• “Outbound Travel” → group ID group_abc123
• “Return Travel” → group ID group_def456
• “Cancelled Travel” → group ID group_ghi789
• Matches the configured group name (“Outbound Travel”) to the correct group ID (group_abc123)

1. Item creation with group ID

• Calls Monday.com’s create_item mutation with group_id parameter:

“graphql mutation { create_item( board_id: 987654321, group_id: "group_abc123", item_name: "John Smith - Outbound Travel", column_values: "{...}" ) { id } } “

1. Result

• New item appears in the “Outbound Travel” group on the Travel Bookings board
• No manual movement needed
• Item is created directly in the correct group

Time: 1-2 seconds from status change to item creation in the target group.

Group-Aware Duplicate Prevention

The Problem: Board-Wide Duplicate Prevention Isn’t Enough

Monday.com’s API includes a create_item_if_column_value_not_exists mutation that prevents creating duplicate items if a specific column value already exists on the board.

Example:

• Check if an item with Name = “John Smith” already exists on the Travel board
• If yes, skip creation
• If no, create the item

The limitation: This check is board-wide, not group-specific.

Real-world scenario where board-wide duplicate prevention fails:

Travel board has 2 groups:

• Outbound Travel
• Return Travel

Workflow:

• Automation 1: When band member confirmed → create “John Smith” in Outbound Travel group
• Automation 2: Later, when return flight booked → create “John Smith” in Return Travel group

With board-wide duplicate prevention:

• Automation 1 creates “John Smith” in Outbound Travel ✓
• Automation 2 checks if “John Smith” exists on the board → Yes (in Outbound Travel group)
• Automation 2 skips creation → ✗ Return Travel item is NOT created

What you actually need: “John Smith” can exist once in Outbound Travel AND once in Return Travel, but not twice in the same group.

BoardBridge’s Solution: Group-Aware Duplicate Check

BoardBridge’s automation engine includes a group-aware duplicate prevention option:

Configuration:

• Prevent duplicates: Yes
• Duplicate check column: Name
• Duplicate check scope: Same group only (not board-wide)

What happens:

1. Automation fires to create “John Smith” in Outbound Travel group
2. System checks: Does “John Smith” already exist in the Outbound Travel group?
3. If yes → skip creation
4. If no → create item

Later:

1. Automation fires to create “John Smith” in Return Travel group
2. System checks: Does “John Smith” already exist in the Return Travel group? (Not in Outbound Travel — different group)
3. If yes → skip creation
4. If no → create item ✓

Result: “John Smith” exists once in Outbound Travel and once in Return Travel. No duplicates within the same group.

Dynamic Group Routing Based on Conditions

You can route items to different groups based on trigger conditions.

Example 1: Outbound vs Return Travel Routing

Automation 1:

• Trigger: Status = “Confirmed”
• Condition: Dropdown “Travel Direction” = “Outbound”
• Action: Create item on Travel board in “Outbound Travel” group

Automation 2:

• Trigger: Status = “Confirmed”
• Condition: Dropdown “Travel Direction” = “Return”
• Action: Create item on Travel board in “Return Travel” group

Result: Items automatically route to the correct group based on the Travel Direction dropdown value.

Example 2: Priority-Based Routing

Automation:

• Trigger: Item created on Support Requests board
• Condition 1: Priority = “Critical” → Create item in “Urgent” group on Task Board
• Condition 2: Priority = “High” → Create item in “This Week” group on Task Board
• Condition 3: Priority = “Normal” → Create item in “Backlog” group on Task Board

Result: Support requests automatically route to different task groups based on priority.

Example 3: Status-Based Group Movement

Automation:

• Trigger: Status changes on Band Confirmations board
• Condition 1: Status = “Confirmed” → Move item to “Confirmed” group
• Condition 2: Status = “Declined” → Move item to “Declined” group
• Condition 3: Status = “Cancelled” → Move item to “Cancelled” group

Result: Items automatically move between groups as their status changes.

Group-Specific Item Creation vs Monday.com Native: Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Monday.com Native Cross-Board Automations	BoardBridge Group-Aware Creation
Create item in default group	✓ Yes	✓ Yes
Create item in specific group by name	✗ No	✓ Yes
Group name auto-resolves to group ID	N/A	✓ Yes
Duplicate prevention (board-wide)	✓ Yes (via API mutation)	✓ Yes
Duplicate prevention (group-aware)	✗ No	✓ Yes
Dynamic group routing based on conditions	✗ No (requires multiple automations + manual movement)	✓ Yes (one automation, multiple target groups)
Move item between groups (same board)	✓ Yes	✓ Yes
Cross-board item creation + group placement (one action)	✗ No (two automations required)	✓ Yes
Works after board duplication	~ Partial (group names preserved but automation references may break)	✓ Yes (group names resolve dynamically)

What Group-Aware Item Creation Unlocks

1. Clean Board Organization

Items land in the correct group from the moment they’re created. No brief period where items appear in the wrong group before being moved.

Example:

• Travel items created directly in “Outbound Travel” or “Return Travel” based on automation logic
• No “catch-all” group at the top of the board that needs manual sorting

2. Roster-Based Workflows

When loading team rosters onto project boards, you can route different roster types to different groups.

Example:

• Load band members from Band Roster → “Band Members” group on Confirmations board
• Load crew members from Crew Roster → “Crew Members” group on Confirmations board
• All in one automation run, correctly grouped

3. Status-Based Group Transitions

As items move through workflow stages (Pending → Confirmed → Completed), they automatically move between groups.

Example:

• Band member confirmed → item moves to “Confirmed” group
• Band member cancels → item moves to “Cancelled” group
• Visual kanban-style progression without manual dragging

4. Prevents Duplicate Items in the Same Group

When automations fire multiple times (e.g., webhook fires twice accidentally, or user repeatedly clicks a button), group-aware duplicate prevention ensures only one item is created per group.

Example:

• Button clicked: “Load Roster to Board”
• Roster has 10 band members
• Each member created once in the “Band Members” group
• If button is clicked again, all 10 members already exist in that group → no duplicates created

How to Set Up Group-Specific Item Creation

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Identify Your Boards and Groups

Source board: Band Confirmations

• Groups: Pending, Confirmed, Declined, Cancelled

Target board: Travel Bookings

• Groups: Outbound Travel, Return Travel, Cancelled Travel

Step 2: Configure the Automation in BoardBridge

• Trigger Type: Status changed
• Board: Band Confirmations
• Status Column: “Confirmation Status”
• Condition: Status value equals “Confirmed”
• Additional Condition: Event Type dropdown equals “Show + Travel”
• Condition Logic: AND

Step 3: Configure the Action with Group Specification

• Action Type: Create item on another board
• Target Board: Travel Bookings
• Target Group: “Outbound Travel”
• Item Name: {{Name}} - Outbound Travel
• Column Mappings:
• Traveler Name ← {{Name}}
• Email ← {{Email}}
• Departure Airport ← {{Departure Airport}}
• Outbound Flight Time ← {{Flight Time Preference}}

Step 4: Enable Group-Aware Duplicate Prevention

• Prevent duplicates: Yes
• Duplicate check column: Name
• Duplicate check scope: Same group only
• Action if duplicate found: Skip creation (log as “duplicate prevented”)

Step 5: Test on a Template Board

• Create a test item on Band Confirmations
• Set Event Type to “Show + Travel”
• Change Confirmation Status to “Confirmed”
• Verify:
• Item created on Travel Bookings board
• Item appears in “Outbound Travel” group (not in default group or other groups)
• Correct column values populated

Step 6: Test Duplicate Prevention

• Trigger the automation again on the same band member (change status back to “Pending” then back to “Confirmed”)
• Verify:
• No duplicate item created in “Outbound Travel” group
• Automation log shows “Duplicate prevented: John Smith already exists in Outbound Travel group”

Step 7: Test Dynamic Group Routing (If Applicable)

• If you have multiple automations routing to different groups (Outbound vs Return), test both:
• Change Travel Direction to “Outbound” → item created in “Outbound Travel” group
• Change Travel Direction to “Return” → item created in “Return Travel” group

Step 8: Duplicate the Board and Verify

• Duplicate Band Confirmations and Travel Bookings boards for a new project
• Trigger the automation
• Verify: Group name (“Outbound Travel”) resolves correctly to the new group ID on the duplicated board

Try BoardBridge: Items Placed in Specific Groups by Name

Group-aware item creation and duplicate prevention are included in BoardBridge’s core automation engine.

What you get:

• ✓ Create items in specific groups by name (not just default group)
• ✓ Group name auto-resolves to monday.com’s internal group ID dynamically
• ✓ Group-aware duplicate prevention (same item in multiple groups = OK; same item twice in one group = prevented)
• ✓ Dynamic group routing (conditions determine which group an item lands in)
• ✓ Multi-group item creation from one automation (one status change, items created in 3 different groups)
• ✓ Works correctly after board duplication (group names resolve automatically)

Book a free consultation to see group-aware routing in action: https://calendly.com/rp-spaceo/call-with-rakesh-est-timezone

FAQ

How does group name resolution work?

When an automation fires, BoardBridge queries the target board’s current group structure. It finds the group matching the configured name and uses that group’s internal ID to create the item. This happens dynamically every time, so renamed groups are automatically detected.

What if I rename a group after setting up the automation?

The automation continues to work. Since group name resolution is dynamic, it finds the renamed group automatically. You don’t need to update the automation configuration.

Can I create items in multiple groups from one automation?

Yes. Add multiple “create item” actions, each targeting a different group. One trigger (status change) fires both actions, creating items in multiple groups simultaneously.

What’s the difference between group-aware and board-wide duplicate prevention?

Board-wide: “If John Smith exists anywhere on the board, don’t create.” Result: John appears once in Outbound Travel, but Return Travel item isn’t created.

Group-aware: “If John Smith exists in the Outbound Travel group, don’t create. If John exists in Return Travel group, don’t create. But John can exist in both groups.” Result: John appears in both groups (once each).

Can I prevent duplicates across multiple columns (Name + Email)?

Yes. You can configure multi-column duplicate checks. Example: Check if (Name = “John Smith” AND Email = “john@example.com”) exists in the target group.

What if the target group is deleted?

The automation fails and logs an error: “Target group ‘Outbound Travel’ not found.” You can configure a fallback behavior (create in default group, skip creation, or alert admin).

Does group-aware duplicate prevention work with subitems?

Yes. Subitems can be created in specific groups within the subitems section of a parent item. The same duplicate prevention logic applies.

Can I move items between groups as their status changes?

Yes. Automation: “When status changes to X, move item to group Y.” This is a single-board action and works natively on monday.com as well. For cross-board movement, use BoardBridge.

How do I test group routing before going live?

In the BoardBridge admin panel, you can preview which group an item would be created in based on current column values. This lets you verify the logic before triggering the automation.

Can I route items to different groups based on dropdown values?

Yes. Example:

• If Trip Type = “Outbound” → create item in “Outbound Travel” group
• If Trip Type = “Return” → create item in “Return Travel” group

Final Thoughts: Organization Starts with Placement

When you create 100 travel items per project, you don’t want all 100 landing in the default group at the top of the board. You want outbound travel in one group, return travel in another, and cancelled bookings in a third.

Items should land in the correct group from the moment they’re created—not in a catch-all group that requires manual sorting.

monday.com’s native cross-board automations can’t specify target groups. You need two automations (create item, then move item), which is inefficient and creates a moment where items appear in the wrong place.

BoardBridge solves this with group-aware item creation: one automation, items placed correctly, group-aware duplicate prevention, dynamic routing, and no manual movement needed.

See it in action. Book a consultation: https://calendly.com/rp-spaceo/call-with-rakesh-est-timezone