The only way to have the Slack message include the “before” value is to have a different field that stores the “before” value. This technique also only works for fields where you select values, not fields where people type in values.
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Have an editable select field with the exact same options as the actual field you want to monitor. Do this by copying the original field, including copying the record values. Set this field to be editable by no-one except automations. This is the “previous value” field.
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Create a new automation for “when record updated” that watches the original field. (You do not need a last modified time field.) Add an action that sends the slack message with the values for both the original field and the new “previous value” field. Add an additional update action that copies over the value from the original field to the “previous value” field.
The flow is as follows:
- Most of the time the original field and the “previous value” field have the same value. This is why you need to duplicate the record values when you create the “previous value” field.
- When a user changes the original field, the automation sends the message with both the new original value, and the previous value. Then the automation resets the previous value to the new current value.
If you need to know the specific change (versus just seeing the old & new values), that would take a rather complicated formula field that depends on the actual values.
This system of being notified of the previous value often may not be worth the effort to setup and maintain. A compromise is often to have the automation notify you that there was a change and include a link to the record. Then you can click the record link to open up the record and see the change in the record history.
