All Subitems Reach a Status Trigger: Beyond the Built-In 'Done' Check

monday.com has a built-in automation: "When all subitems are done, change the parent status." It's useful — but it only works with the fixed "Done" status label.

What if your workflow doesn't use "Done"? What if subitems need to reach "Approved", "QA Passed", "Signed Off", or "Published"? The native trigger simply doesn't cover these cases.

The Problem

Subitems in monday.com are great for breaking work into smaller pieces. A parent item represents the project or deliverable, and subitems represent the individual tasks. The natural workflow is: when all the pieces are complete, update the parent.

But "complete" means different things in different workflows:

• In an approval workflow, subitems need to reach "Approved" — not "Done"
• In a QA pipeline, subitems need to reach "QA Passed"
• In a content workflow, subitems need to reach "Published"
• In a procurement process, subitems need to reach "Signed Off"

The native trigger can't handle any of these. Teams end up manually checking subitems and updating parents by hand — exactly the kind of repetitive work automations should eliminate.

The Solution: All Subitems Reach a Status Trigger

The recipe sentence:

"When ALL subitems reach a specific status"

Choose any status label. When every single subitem on an item reaches that status, the trigger fires on the parent item. Your downstream actions then update the parent record.

How to Use It

1. Install Community Cookbook from the monday.com marketplace
2. Create a new automation on your board
3. Select the All Subitems Reach a Status Trigger
4. Choose the target status label (e.g., "Approved")
5. Add actions to run on the parent item (e.g., change parent status to "All Approved")

The trigger watches all subitems. When the last one hits the target status, the automation fires.

Real-World Use Cases

Content Publishing Pipeline

A blog post has subitems: "Draft Written", "Edited", "SEO Reviewed", "Images Added". Each subitem moves through statuses. When ALL subitems reach "Published", automatically mark the parent as "Ready to Go Live".

Approval Workflows

An expense report has subitems for each line item. Each needs individual approval. When ALL line items reach "Approved", automatically route the parent to finance for payment.

Sprint Completion

A sprint item has subitems for each story. When ALL stories reach "Accepted" (not just "Done"), update the sprint status and notify stakeholders.

Vendor Onboarding

A new vendor has subitems for compliance checks: background check, insurance verification, contract signed. When ALL checks reach "Verified", mark the vendor as "Active".

Manufacturing QA

A product batch has subitems for each quality check. When ALL checks reach "Passed", release the batch for shipping.

Why Not Just Use "Done"?

You could rename all your completion states to "Done" and use the native trigger. But that creates a different problem: you lose the specificity of your workflow. "Approved" and "Done" mean different things. "QA Passed" and "Done" carry different information. Forcing everything into "Done" flattens your process and makes it harder to understand the board at a glance.

Community Cookbook's trigger lets you keep your meaningful status labels while still automating the parent rollup.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if a subitem is added after others have already reached the target status?+

Does the trigger fire on the parent item or the subitems?+

Can I use different target statuses for different parent items?+

What if an item has no subitems?+