monday.com Conditional Email Template Selection

Automation Pain Point #16 & #18

You need one automation rule that sends different email templates depending on column values. When Status changes to “Advanced” and Trip Type = “Outbound”, send the Outbound Travel Email. When Status changes to “Advanced” and Trip Type = “Return”, send the Return Travel Email.

Monday.com’s automation builder doesn’t support if/else branching. You can set up ONE trigger (status change) and ONE action (send email), but you cannot say “if Column X = Y, send Template A, otherwise send Template B.”

The result? Teams create separate automations for every scenario — one automation for outbound trips, one for return trips, one for cancelled trips — multiplying maintenance overhead and increasing the chance that one automation breaks while others work.

This article explains why monday.com’s automation engine lacks conditional logic, and how BoardBridge handles one automation rule with multiple email templates.

Table of Contents

• The Problem: No If/Else in Automation Actions
• What Users Need vs. What Monday.com Offers
• Real-World Example: Multi-Stage Approval Workflow
• The Monday.com Workaround (Separate Automations)
• How BoardBridge Handles Conditional Email Templates
• Compound Conditions + Conditional Templates
• Common Conditional Email Scenarios
• FAQ

The Problem: No If/Else in Automation Actions

Monday.com automations follow a simple structure:

Trigger → Condition (optional) → Action(s)

The Condition step lets you filter WHEN the automation fires (e.g., “only if Person = Manager”), but it doesn’t let you branch the action. Once the trigger and condition pass, the actions are fixed.

Community Evidence: 6+ Years of Feature Requests

From a November 2024 forum thread titled “How can I make if-this-then-that type automations on Monday?”:

“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”:

“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.” — 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

From a July 2023 thread, Monday.com staff explicitly stated:

“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

The “Is Any Of” Workaround (Partial Solution)

In July 2024, Monday.com added an “Is any of” operator for status automations, allowing you to trigger on multiple status values within a single column:

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

Example: “When status changes to any of: ‘Pending’, ‘In Review’, ‘Approved'”

Limitation: This is OR logic within one column, not if/else branching across different columns. You still cannot say “if Status = X and Dropdown = Y, send Email A, otherwise send Email B.”

What Users Need vs. What Monday.com Offers

What Users Need

Scenario	Desired Logic
Travel coordination	When Status = “Advanced”, check Trip Type → if “Outbound”, send Outbound Email; if “Return”, send Return Email
Approval workflow	When Status = “Approved”, check Amount → if ≥$10k, send Large Approval Email; if <$10k, send Standard Email
Team handoff	When Status = “Complete”, check Team → if “Internal”, send Internal Handoff Email; if “External”, send Vendor Email
Multi-language	When Status = “Confirmed”, check Language → send template in client’s preferred language

What Monday.com Offers

Feature	Support
Trigger on status change	✅ Supported
Condition to filter when automation fires	✅ Supported (limited to Person and Status columns)
Conditional email template selection	❌ Not supported — no if/else logic in actions
Multiple automations per scenario	⚠️ Workaround exists but fragile and hard to maintain

From a June 2024 forum thread titled “Use OR in automations”:

“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

“Rats. Really need some booleans in there to be able to do more complex automations.” — seandotson, June 25, 2024

The community-suggested workaround:

“Unfortunately the only solution is to duplicate the automation and check for ‘PTO’ in one and for ‘No Travel’ in the other one.” — basdebruin, June 25, 2024

“Sadly no ‘OR’ option but it is desperately needed.” — ProjectMastermind, July 4, 2024

Real-World Example: Multi-Stage Approval Workflow

Here’s a workflow from a client managing project approvals across multiple departments.

The Scenario

The company uses an Approvals board with:

• Status column: “Submitted”, “In Review”, “Approved”, “Rejected”
• Amount column: Dollar value of the request
• Department dropdown: “Marketing”, “Sales”, “Operations”, “Finance”

When the status changes to “Approved”, the system needs to send different email templates based on:

1. Amount: Large approvals (≥$10,000) require detailed documentation. Small approvals (<$10,000) get a simple confirmation.
2. Department: Different departments have different next steps (Marketing needs creative assets, Finance needs invoice details, etc.)

This creates 8 possible email scenarios:

• Marketing + Large Approval
• Marketing + Standard Approval
• Sales + Large Approval
• Sales + Standard Approval
• Operations + Large Approval
• Operations + Standard Approval
• Finance + Large Approval
• Finance + Standard Approval

The Monday.com Approach (8 Separate Automations)

Here’s what teams have to do:

Automation 1:

• Trigger: When Status changes to “Approved”
• Condition: Person is in “Marketing” AND Amount ≥ $10,000
• Action: Send “Marketing Large Approval Email”

Automation 2:

• Trigger: When Status changes to “Approved”
• Condition: Person is in “Marketing” AND Amount < $10,000
• Action: Send “Marketing Standard Approval Email”

…repeat for Sales, Operations, Finance (8 total automations).

Problems:

• 8 automations to maintain — if you update the email template or change the $10,000 threshold, you have to edit 8 automations
• No compound conditions — monday.com conditions are limited to Person and Status columns, so you can’t check Amount or Department directly (you’d need workarounds with intermediate status columns)
• Easy to break — deactivate one automation by accident, and one scenario stops working while others continue (hard to debug)
• Hard to audit — no single place to see the full approval workflow logic

The Monday.com Workaround (Separate Automations)

If you’re not using BoardBridge, here’s the most reliable monday.com-native approach:

Setup

Create separate automations for each combination of Department and Amount tier.

Automation structure:

• Trigger: When Status changes to “Approved”
• Condition: (optional) Person is in [Department]
• Action: Send email using [Department + Amount Tier] template

Example:

Automation #	Condition	Email Template
1	Person in Marketing, Amount ≥ $10k	Marketing Large Approval
2	Person in Marketing, Amount < $10k	Marketing Standard Approval
3	Person in Sales, Amount ≥ $10k	Sales Large Approval
4	Person in Sales, Amount < $10k	Sales Standard Approval
5	Person in Operations, Amount ≥ $10k	Operations Large Approval
6	Person in Operations, Amount < $10k	Operations Standard Approval
7	Person in Finance, Amount ≥ $10k	Finance Large Approval
8	Person in Finance, Amount < $10k	Finance Standard Approval

Problems:

• Amount column cannot be checked in native conditions — monday.com conditions only support Person and Status columns. You’d need to create an intermediate “Amount Tier” status column that gets updated by a formula or separate automation, then use THAT in your condition.
• Department dropdown cannot be checked in native conditions — same problem. You’d need another intermediate status column for “Department Status” or use the Person column as a proxy (which doesn’t work if multiple people from the same department are involved).
• Maintenance nightmare — changing the $10,000 threshold requires editing all 8 automations

This workaround is technically possible but painful to build and harder to maintain.

How BoardBridge Handles Conditional Email Templates

BoardBridge automations support conditional template selection — one automation rule checks column values and sends the appropriate email template. Source: BoardBridge Product Documentation

How It Works

Step 1: Define the trigger

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

Step 2: Add compound conditions (optional)

• Condition 1: Status = “Approved” (redundant with trigger but ensures safety)
• Condition 2: Amount is_not_empty (blocks automation if Amount is missing)
• Condition logic: AND (all conditions must pass)

Step 3: Configure conditional email template selection

• Primary condition column: Department (dropdown)
• Secondary condition column: Amount (number)
• Template mapping:

Department	Amount	Email Template
Marketing	≥ $10,000	Marketing Large Approval
Marketing	< $10,000	Marketing Standard Approval
Sales	≥ $10,000	Sales Large Approval
Sales	< $10,000	Sales Standard Approval
Operations	≥ $10,000	Operations Large Approval
Operations	< $10,000	Operations Standard Approval
Finance	≥ $10,000	Finance Large Approval
Finance	< $10,000	Finance Standard Approval

Step 4: Define email settings (shared across all templates)

• Recipient: Pulled from “Requester Email” column
• CC group: “Approvals Team”
• Sender: approvals@yourcompany.com

What Happens When Status Changes to “Approved”

Scenario 1: Marketing request for $15,000

• BoardBridge reads Department → “Marketing”
• Reads Amount → $15,000
• Matches template mapping → “Marketing Large Approval”
• Loads that template
• Replaces merge variables (project name, amount, approver name, etc.)
• Sends email to requester
• CCs Approvals Team
• Updates “Approval Email Status” to “Sent – Marketing Large”
• Logs the email (template used, timestamp, recipient)

Scenario 2: Finance request for $3,000

• Reads Department → “Finance”
• Reads Amount → $3,000
• Matches template mapping → “Finance Standard Approval”
• Loads that template
• Sends email
• Updates status to “Sent – Finance Standard”

Result:

• One automation instead of eight
• One place to update the $10,000 threshold or email templates
• Zero chance of sending the wrong email — the system picks the template based on data
• Full compound conditions — checks Department AND Amount before sending

Compound Conditions + Conditional Templates

BoardBridge lets you stack pre-conditions (checks that must pass before ANY actions run) with conditional template selection (choosing which template to use).

Example: Safety Net for Incomplete Data

Pre-conditions (checked first):

• Amount is_not_empty (block automation if Amount column is blank)
• Department is_not_empty (block automation if Department is blank)
• Requester Email is_not_empty (block automation if recipient email is missing)

If any pre-condition fails:

• Automation stops
• Admin receives notification: “Approval email blocked for Item #147 – Amount column is empty. No email sent.”

If all pre-conditions pass:

• Conditional template selection runs
• Correct email template is chosen based on Department + Amount
• Email sends

This two-layer safety ensures that automations only fire when all required data exists, and always send the right email for the scenario.

Common Conditional Email Scenarios

Here are five workflows where conditional template selection eliminates automation sprawl:

1. Multi-Language Client Communication

Trigger: Status changes to “Confirmed”

Conditional logic:

• If Language = “English” → English Confirmation template
• If Language = “Spanish” → Spanish Confirmation template
• If Language = “French” → French Confirmation template

Why it matters: Client communications must match their preferred language. One automation handles all.

2. Tiered Support Responses

Trigger: Status changes to “Resolved”

Conditional logic:

• If Priority = “Critical” → VIP Resolution template (includes escalation manager contact)
• If Priority = “High” → Standard Resolution template
• If Priority = “Low” → Self-Service Resolution template (includes knowledge base links)

Why it matters: Different priority levels require different follow-up content. One automation adapts.

3. Internal vs. External Handoff

Trigger: Status changes to “Complete”

Conditional logic:

• If Team = “Internal” → Internal Handoff template (casual tone, includes Slack channels and internal process links)
• If Team = “External Vendor” → External Handoff template (formal tone, self-contained instructions)

Why it matters: Internal and external audiences need completely different language and content. One automation handles both.

4. Geographic Region Routing

Trigger: Status changes to “Shipped”

Conditional logic:

• If Region = “North America” → NA Shipping Confirmation (includes FedEx tracking, 2-5 day delivery)
• If Region = “Europe” → EU Shipping Confirmation (includes DHL tracking, customs info, 5-10 day delivery)
• If Region = “Asia-Pacific” → APAC Shipping Confirmation (includes different carrier, 7-14 day delivery)

Why it matters: Shipping logistics vary by region. One automation covers all.

5. Subscription Tier Notifications

Trigger: Status changes to “Renewed”

Conditional logic:

• If Plan = “Basic” → Basic Renewal template (includes upgrade incentives)
• If Plan = “Pro” → Pro Renewal template (includes advanced feature tips)
• If Plan = “Enterprise” → Enterprise Renewal template (includes dedicated account manager contact)

Why it matters: Different subscription tiers receive different renewal communications. One automation scales across tiers.

What This Means for Your Workflows

Conditional email template selection turns automation sprawl into one clean rule. Instead of maintaining 8 separate automations (and hoping none break silently), you have one automation that checks the data and sends the right email every time. No duplication, no maintenance overhead, no accidental wrong-email sends.

For teams managing approval workflows, client communication, support ticketing, or any process where the same trigger requires different email content based on context, this is the difference between automation that feels fragile and automation that just works.

BoardBridge — Form & Workflow Automation for monday.com handles conditional email templates out of the box. If you’re tired of automation sprawl and want one rule to handle multiple scenarios, it might be worth a look.

Meta Description

Send different email templates from one automation based on column values. Eliminate automation sprawl by consolidating multiple rules into one smart rule.

Related Articles

For more conditional automation:

• Compound Conditions: AND/OR Logic for Multiple Triggers
• Button Click: Conditional Email Templates
• One Trigger, Multiple Actions (Action Chaining)

Book a free consultation to consolidate your automations: https://calendly.com/rp-spaceo/call-with-rakesh-est-timezone