Automation Based on Formula Field Result Changing?

[Christopher_Can]

I have a formula field in one of my bases that is designed to show us how much work is left to be done before a project's start date.

So we have the start date and the number of outstanding tasks.  The formula field looks at those two fields and lets us know how many tasks per day are due.

What I would like to do is drive an automation flow in the event that formula field spits out a number that is higher than it was before.  In other words, if we've been at 2 tasks per day but it jumps to 3 tasks per day, I'd want to know that.

But I don't see any straightforward way to monitor a formula in this manner.  Anyone have any creative ideas?

[TheTimeSavingCo · Accepted solution]

To do this you'll need to create a number field called "Tasks per day - Historical" or something, and as a start just copy and paste the value from your current formula field into it (Let's call this "Tasks per day")

After that, create another formula field (Call it "Alert" or something) that will check if "Tasks per day" is higher than the value of "Tasks per day - Historical", and then create an automation that'll trigger if "Alert" updates.  Its action will be to:
1. Send you an notification
2. Copy the current value of "Tasks per day" and paste it into "Tasks per day - Historical"

And this should do what you want I think

[Christopher_Can]

Perfect, that sounds like exactly it!