Recurring cards on a monthly basis in Trello

Question

Is there a way to create recurring cards/tasks in Trello? This is the only thing that's preventing our organization from using Trello vs. Producteev.

Answer 1

You can do this for free with just a little extra effort.

We have a specific board where all the cards are "recurring". No need to create a card for every occurrence of a task, just re-use the same cards!

Our board has lists for Daily, Weekly, Monthly/Quarterly, Once and Completed/Retired task lists. Some cards have the day in the title (Tue: Clean Desk) as a reminder of when it should happen. We never copy cards for the next day/week, we just update the cards' activity and Due date.

When someone "completes" a task they simply change the Due Date and optionally enter an activity comment. It works great as soon as you figure out how to maintain it.

Example: We have one card that includes 5 steps (a checklist) to be completed during the week. As each checklist item is checked off, the card proceeds. The last item in the checklist is "Reset Card and Change Due Date". So if the Due date is Friday, Items 1 - 4 get checked during the week. When all items are complete we UNCHECK the check boxes and change the due date to the Next due date. Trello keeps track of these changes so you can always go back and see history in the activity comments.

Answer 2

Zapier can do this with https://zapier.com/z/60m/zapbook/schedule/trello/9149/create-trello-card-every-month/!

It is very simple but very powerful, you can even dynamically insert the day of week or time into the card (it doesn't have to be static content). Of course, you can also make this a daily or weekly task, you call!

Here is the link: https://zapier.com/z/60m/zapbook/schedule/trello/9149/create-trello-card-every-month/ and here are some screenshots:

Disclaimer: I'm a co-founder of Zapier but use Trello a lot personally (it rocks!).

Answer 3

The method using Zapier is really easy to use. But in the free version of Zapier you can use maximum 5 zaps (i.e. 5 reoccuring cards). I needed at least 10 zaps and because I'm a poor student I don't have the money for the premium account.

So I starting looking for a method using IFTTT. IFTT doesn't have a Trello channel, but there's still a easy way to create reoccuring cards: Use the Trigger "DATE & TIME" & the Action "GMAIL". You can schedule gmail to send an email with which you create a trello card. It is possible on a daily, hourly, weekly, monthly, yearly basis. If you don't know how to create a card via mail, look here: http://help.trello.com/customer/portal/articles/1216141-creating-cards-by-email#formattingTips

Answer 4

Zapier has access to the Trello API. IFTTT has access to a calendar. Both have access to Google Drive.

Create an event that adds a Google Drive document once per month in IFTTT. I've done this step for you, if you want to use my recipe: https://ifttt.com/recipes/68810

Use the new triggered file in Google Drive as the event for a new Trello Card in Zapier. Zapier can filter results from the created Google Drive documents, but it does not yet appear to have the ability to copy a previous card, so you'll be creating your checklists from scratch.

This automates some of your actions, but it doesn't get you all of the way there.

Answer 5

I have created a zap in Zapier that works like a charm - at least for my scenario.

The task in Zapier creates a new card with the same content as a previous card. The trigger is: When a Card is moved to the "Done" list on my board AND the description field contains the word "Recurring" the zap is triggered. All fields are copied from the old card but the due date is created using a combination of Zapier's named variables and the adjust time feature.

In the description field of the cards I want to recur I write "Recurring(21)" where the number is the number of days from the data the previous card has been moved to the "Done" list. In the Zap I write

{{data__card__dateLastActivity}} +{{data__card__desc_Recurring}}d"

This will create a new due date e.g.

08-04-2014 +21d

equals

29-04-2014

For more details see http://zpr.io/HSke and https://zapier.com/help/advanced-tips/

Answer 6

The Zap above works great for me with some refinements/clarifications:

First, I changed "Recurring" to be "recur" and put it in the name field, so I can type something like "Task name -recur(1)" which is faster to put in.

Second, doing this the field names change to:

{{data__card__dateLastActivity}} +{{data__card__name_recur}}d

and I put this into the due date field, as described.

Also, keep in mind that the Zap's run every 5 minutes during the free trial. And when entering things, don't forget to put double-braces around the fields.

Answer 7

You can use google calendar to create a monthly event (I'd recommend creating a new calendar just for recurring trello tasks by going to "My calendar" -> "Create new calendar" on the left-hand side of the web interface). Then setup an email reminder for that event and you'll get notified once a month per email. Once you have done that, setup your email client to automatically forward the reminder email to your trello board. Under gmail you would do that by creating a filter.

As explained here, you can find out the email address for your trello board under Email Settings… in the Settings section in the trello sidebar.

The only problem with this setup is that google calendar emails have a subject line with the following format:

Reminder: event-name @ date-string (calendar-name)

Since trello uses the subject line of incoming emails to create new cards, the title of the new cards will not only include the event-name, but the full subject line.

Answer 8

The only way I can see this being possible at the moment is to use the Trello API and have an external system periodically "add" a card.

The API call to use is listed on this page https://trello.com/docs/api/card/index.html

Answer 9

I found a great solution that's a blend of the options many of you suggested.

I created a new calendar in Google calendar, and I put my recurring events on this calendar. Then I have Zapier create a new Trello card for each new event on that calendar. This gives me dynamic control over creating new events as well.

Answer 10

You can do this with IFTTT, which may be cheaper than using Zapier (depending on how many recurring tasks you have)

There is a write up here including links to a couple of IFTTT recipes to use and details on how to build your own. http://blog.getcorrello.com/2015/11/02/how-to-create-recurring-tasks-in-trello/

Answer 11

Trello recently (late 2016) added this feature as a power-up.

To use it, enable it by going to Menu -> Power-ups. Once it's enabled, it appears on the side of the card under "Power ups". Repeats can be weekly (any day of the week) or monthly (day of the month).

With a free account, only one power-up can be active at a time, so the IFTTT or Zaiper solutions may still be useful.