Automating Project Advancement in Monday.com for Church Communication Teams
In a fast-paced church communication environment, juggling multiple creative projects—designs, print materials, web updates, and deadlines—is part of the norm. Coordinating proofing, approvals, and timelines with ministry leaders or department stakeholders can often introduce bottlenecks, especially when responses are delayed or missed altogether.
Using Monday.com with automation and Make.com (formerly Integromat), it’s possible to streamline the approval process and keep your projects moving, even when stakeholders don’t respond in time. In this article, we’ll break down how to automate project advancement based on proofing deadlines using Monday.com’s built-in automation engine.
Whether you’re managing Sunday service slides, printed bulletins, or digital signage, this workflow can save you from dozens of manual follow-ups and keep your team focused on hitting deadlines instead of chasing approvals.
Why Automate Project Advancement?
In any content-heavy environment—especially in church communications—timeliness is everything. Announcements, events, and sermon series materials follow specific timelines, and a delayed approval can throw a whole project off course.
We’ve decided, as a team, that we’re going to be respectful of stakeholders’ time, but if they haven’t responded by the deadline, we’re still going to move forward. Automating that process allows us to:
- Reduce administrative overhead
- Keep teams on schedule
- Minimize bottlenecks
- Preserve a transparent audit trail
Let’s break down how to implement this in Monday.com.
The Use Case: Automated Proofing and Advancement
Let’s say you’ve received a request to create promotional materials for a church event. The process looks something like this:
- Project request is submitted.
- The designer starts the design work.
- The design status is set to “Proof.”
- An automated system sends the proof to the stakeholder for approval.
- If no response comes within a defined time, the project automatically advances to “Proof Approved” to keep things on track.
Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up in Monday.com
Step 1: Set Up Your Columns
In your Monday.com board for managing communication projects, ensure you have the following columns:
- Status Column: To track design progress (e.g., Not Started, In Progress, Proof, Proof Approved)
- Date Column: Named “Proof Deadline”
- People Column: To assign individuals
- Sub-items (optional): For breaking down tasks like “Design”, “Print”, “Web”
Step 2: Automation #1 — Set the Proof Deadline
This automation kicks in when the design status becomes “Proof.”
Automation Workflow:
When sub-item status changes to “Proof”:
- Post an update: “This is now being proofed.”
- Set the date in the “Proof Deadline” column to Today.
- Push the date in the “Proof Deadline” column by 3 business days.
🔧 Note: Monday.com requires dates to be initialized before being pushed, so setting the date to today before pushing it forward is necessary.
How To Set This Up
- Click “Automations” in Monday.com
- Choose “Custom Automation”
- Build the recipe:
- Trigger: “When sub-item status changes to Proof”
- Actions:
- Create an update: “This is now being proofed.”
- Set date: Proof Deadline = Today
- Push date: Proof Deadline + 3 business days
This lets your stakeholder know the proof has begun and gives them three business days to respond.
Step 3: Automation #2 — Auto-Advance the Project If No Response
This automation gives the stakeholder a few extra days but moves the project forward if the status still says “Proof.”
Automation Workflow:
When the current date is 2 days after the Proof Deadline AND the status is still “Proof”:
- Notify the project manager: “They didn’t respond. We’re moving forward.”
- Change status to “Proof Approved”
- Post an update in the item: “This item was auto-approved because the owner did not respond.”
- Notify your internal team members that work can proceed.
How To Set This Up
- Go to Automations > Custom
- Build the recipe:
- Trigger: “When date arrives +2 days” → for column “Proof Deadline”
- Condition: Only if status is still “Proof”
- Actions:
- Notify: (Choose yourself/team lead)
- Set status to “Proof Approved”
- Post update: “This item was auto-approved because the owner did not respond.”
- Notify team members (graphic designer, web admin, etc.)
Additional Automation Enhancements
👉 Use Make.com for Advanced Workflows:
This example uses Monday.com automation only, but pairing with Make.com allows for deeper automation:
- AI-generated proofing notifications
- Automated email follow-ups
- Reminders triggered at 24 and 48 hours
👉 Audit Trails for Transparency:
Each automated move is accompanied by a comment/update in Monday.com. This keeps your team accountable and ensures everyone knows when and why actions were taken.
👉 Internal Proof Before Finalization:
Ensure there’s an internal review process that doesn’t rely on the external requester. This way, your team has a second layer of quality control, even if the original owner doesn’t respond.
Final Thoughts
Automating project steps based on proof deadlines allows churches and creative teams to maintain ministry excellence without getting buried under administrative tasks. Monday.com, with a little setup and strategic thinking, can handle the follow-up, notify your team, and make executive decisions like a virtual project manager.
This level of automation not only saves time but also ensures your communication materials are delivered on time—even when the human element falls behind. If you’re ready to eliminate follow-up emails and stay on track with your church’s vision for communication, this is a great place to start.
