How to Set Up Route Items To Different People Based On Dropdown Value

What This Does

Monday.com can't automatically assign items to different people based on which dropdown option is selected.

Zorpa rules can change person columns based on dropdown values: when Department = Engineering, set Owner to John.

Complexity: intermediate | 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

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 Rules tab

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: Create rule: When [Dropdown] changes to [Value]

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

Step 4: Set action: Change [Person Column] to [Person]

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

Step 5: Create additional rules for each routing path

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

Step 6: Enable all rules

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

Real-World Examples

It Services

Dropdown: Ticket Category (Network, Hardware, Software, Security) Trigger: When value changes to "Network" Action: Assign to Network Team lead Impact: Wrong routing = delayed resolution

An MSP receives 50 tickets/day. Without Zorpa, a dispatcher manually reads each ticket category and assigns it. With Zorpa, Network tickets go to the network team, Security tickets to SecOps, automatically.

Saas Companies

Dropdown: Feature Area (Frontend, Backend, Mobile, Infrastructure) Trigger: When value changes to "Frontend" Action: Assign to Frontend Tech Lead Impact: Misrouted features = sprint delays

Product files 20 feature requests per sprint. PM currently reads each one and manually assigns to the right tech lead. Zorpa routes automatically based on Feature Area.

Legal Services

Dropdown: Practice Area (Litigation, Corporate, IP, Employment) Trigger: When value changes to "Litigation" Action: Assign to Litigation Partner + add to litigation board Impact: Slow routing = client dissatisfaction

A mid-size firm receives 10 new matters/week. The intake coordinator reads each form, determines practice area, and manually assigns. Zorpa does this in milliseconds.

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.