Build an end-to-end requests workflow in monday.com

Do you get job requests from other team members?

Ever find it hard to keep on top of all the requests?

I feel your pain.

Before I built this monday workflow, I had marketing requests flying all over:

• Email

• Zoom

• Whatsapp

• Teams Chat

• Phone calls

• At the water cooler

It was impossible to keep up with where everything was up to.

This simple monday.com request form workflow changed all that.

I use it for marketing requests but you could use it for:

• New project requests

• HR requests

• Finance requests

• Operations / facilities requests

• Procurement

Here’s how it works.

1. Note down all the information you’ll need for the request

Before you start, make a list of all the information you need for this particular type of request. For my marketing requests, I needed to know:

• Name of request

• Requestor name & email

• A short description

• Target audience

• Format required

• Key message

• Deadline

• Any supporting links, images etc

Hint: If you already have some kind of briefing form, or a standard template, work backwards from this to figure out exactly what you need.

Other things you might want to include for your requests are Budget, which Department it’s for, milestone dates or deadlines.

2. Build your request form

Now we know what info we need to capture, we can create a new Form in monday. This form will be used by requesters to submit all the info you need.

Give your form a heading - I called mine ‘Marketing Request Form’.

Write a short description that makes it clear exactly what this form is used for.

For each piece of info, click ‘Add New Question’. Take a moment to consider which question type fits best for the info you need.

Here are three pro tips:

Capture budgets or financial info with a ‘Number’ column. (you can customise the currency / units in the board later)

Short text fields should be long enough in most cases. Any more information could be supplied via a link to a separate document or file.

Use Single Select questions whenever you can. This helps you standardise, sort & filter requests later. In my Form, I used a single select for ‘Format’:

One final step for the form: Make sure you’ve ticked ‘Required’ for any mandatory fields. Otherwise, you’ll end up with missing info.

Hint: If the field isn’t mandatory, think twice about whether you really need to ask the question. The only ‘Optional’ question on my form is to supply any supporting links or files.

3. Add Key Columns & Statuses to your board

With your Form set up, you’ll get all the info you need from requesters.

Now we need to add few details to add to make this workflow FLY.

1. Go back to the ‘Main Table’ view on your board

2. Add a ‘People’ Column & rename it ‘Responsible’

3. Add a ‘Date’ column & rename it ‘Submission date’

4. Check your Status labels. Rename these to whatever stages you require. Here are the Status labels I use:

Pro tip: Ensure your status label colours are aligned with your group colours (if there's a logical link between them).

4. Setup Automations

With your key columns in place, use Automations to save you time & hassle.

The possibilities are endless, so here are 3 really simple automations to make your life a LOT easier:

Auto-assign the Responsible person

Now you’re getting requests in, you can automatically allocate work to the relevant person so they don’t miss it.

Here’s a sample automation recipe for a Marketing team:

Set a Pre-Deadline reminder

Use this one so you never miss another deadline!

Here’s the automation recipe:

Auto-create the submission date

This one is really handy if you want to build any kind of reporting or analytics.

It can give you insights into how long you take to close requests & how much lead-time requestors are giving you. Here’s the recipe:

5. Test your form with Users

OK, your request form is good to go. Time to test it!

Grab the link to the Form & send it to 2 or 3 stakeholders who will use the form.

Here’s how to find the form link:

Use this test to check that:

• new requests land in the right place

• automations are working correctly

• Mandatory questions are right

• Users understand what you’re asking them (update your question descriptions if not)

Take the opportunity to ask users what they think of the form & if there’s anything they’d add to make it easier for them to use.

6. Publish your form & make it easy to find

Once you’re happy with the request form (and so are your stakeholders), you need to make sure everyone uses it.

Here are some suggestions to get the word out there & launch your new form:

• Include it in staff onboarding forms

• Add it to the next company newsletter

• Drop a link in the company Slack channel

• Screenshare it at your next team meeting

• Add the sharing link to your email signature

Once people know about the request form, there’s just one more step…(Hint: it’s the hardest part of the whole thing).

7. Be strict when people make requests outside the process

Congratulations! You’ve built a workflow.

Now, you need to own the process & encourage others to stick to it.

The next time you get a message, a call or an email request, make sure you redirect the requestor to fill out the form instead.

It can be a bit awkward, but if you don’t, you’ll quickly end up back where you started: requests flying all over the place, with no idea what’s due when & for whom.

Stick with it!

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways we can help:

1. Free monday.com training. Register for: Foundation Training or Advanced Training

2. Book a discovery call with one of our consultants if you need monday to do something a little bit more special for you.