How to Set Up When Dropdown Status Changes, Notify Relevant People

What This Does

Monday.com native automations cannot trigger based on dropdown column value changes. Status column automations exist, but dropdown columns are ignored.

Zorpa adds dropdown change triggers. Create a rule: when [Dropdown Column] changes to [Value], perform [Action].

Complexity: beginner | Feature: Dropdown Trigger

Prerequisites

• A Monday.com account (any plan)
• At least one board with dropdown columns
• Zorpa installed from the Monday Marketplace

Step-by-Step Setup

Step 1: Install Zorpa from Monday Marketplace

Navigate to the Monday.com Marketplace, search for "Zorpa", and click Install. Add it to the board where you want dropdown automation.

Step 2: Open Zorpa Board View on your board

Once installed, open your board and switch to the Zorpa Board View. You'll see the Rules tab where all your automations are configured.

Step 3: Click 'Add Rule' in the Rules tab

Click "Add Rule" and select the dropdown column that should trigger the automation.

Step 4: Select trigger column (your dropdown)

Follow the on-screen prompts to complete this configuration step.

Step 5: Set condition: 'changes to' + select value

Follow the on-screen prompts to complete this configuration step.

Step 6: Choose action: notify person/channel

Follow the on-screen prompts to complete this configuration step.

Step 7: Enable rule and test

Follow the on-screen prompts to complete this configuration step.

Real-World Examples

Real Estate Residential

Dropdown: Listing Status (Active, Pending, Under Contract, Sold) Trigger: When value changes to "Under Contract" Action: Notify transaction coordinator + update portfolio board Impact: Missed notification = delayed closing

When Sarah changes a listing from Active to Under Contract, her TC, the buyer's agent, and office manager all need to know. Without Zorpa, she sends 3 separate messages and updates 2 boards manually.

Legal Services

Dropdown: Case Stage (Intake, Research, Filing, Discovery) Trigger: When value changes to "Filing" Action: Notify paralegal + create filing checklist + set court deadline Impact: Missed deadline = malpractice risk

A litigation firm handling 80 active cases needs automatic deadline creation when a case moves to Filing. Missing a court deadline isn't just inconvenient — it's a malpractice claim.

Saas Companies

Dropdown: Bug Severity (Low, Medium, High, Critical) Trigger: When value changes to "Critical" Action: Page on-call engineer + create incident channel + notify CTO Impact: Unnoticed critical bug = customer churn

QA finds a payment processing bug at 3 PM. Without automation, they Slack the lead, who's in a meeting. With Zorpa, the on-call engineer is paged instantly.

Troubleshooting

• Rule not firing? Check that the dropdown column is correctly selected and the trigger value matches exactly (case-sensitive).
• Form submissions not triggering? Ensure you're using Zorpa's form-safe trigger mode, not a standard column change trigger.
• Actions not executing? Verify that the target person/column exists and that Zorpa has the necessary board permissions.

Next Steps

Once your first rule is working, consider adding:

• Cascading dropdowns to validate data entry
• Cross-board sync to keep multiple boards aligned
• Additional trigger rules for other dropdown columns

Install Zorpa to get started.