Timestamping: either a specific element in a field or a computed field

[Victoria_W]

Hey AT Users.

Has anyone come across a good solution for either timestamping an updated element in a field or generating a timestamp for when a computed field contains a value vs when it is empty?

For context:
In our base there is a rich text field which includes a check list of about 10 items (done to eliminate the need of 10 separate fields, as there is already a LOT of data to process in this base).
Using the following formula I can only return a timestamp for when the entire field was modified, not the particular element in that field:
IF(FIND(" Milestone “,{Milestones Checklist}),DATETIME_FORMAT(SET_TIMEZONE(LAST_MODIFIED_TIME(), ‘America/Toronto’), ‘M/D/YYYY LT’,”"))
If anyone has a work around for either timestamping when each of the 10 elements is marked with an x OR knows a workaround for timestamping a computed field - then I could add an IF(FIND(" Milestone",{Milestones Checklist}),“Yes”,"") field and then timestamp WHEN that yes appears.

Any thoughts???

[ScottWorld]

As far as I know, you would need to use a JavaScript or an Airtable Automation for this, because you’ll need to manually update a normal field (i.e. not a formula field) with the timestamp information.

So you would trigger the automation whenever the "[x] Milestone" is found, and to keep them all of the milestones separate from one another, you would likely need 10 separate automations — one for each milestone.

Perhaps someone else knows of an easier/cleaner way of doing this.

[Victoria_W · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the input!
I ended up building 10 separate automations base on a plain text summary of the milestones which then updated the designated date/time stamp field with the last updated time when the particular milestone is marked off.
Not 100% slick, but it works!