If you haven’t used Trello's Butler Automation before, we think its worth checking out.
Trello Automation lets you set up automated rules to perform actions in Trello. This saves you time and helps to ensure important tasks don’t slip through the cracks. Without any programming knowledge, you can make some pretty magical things happen. e.g. Automatically add a checklist when a new card is added to your board, Archive cards when dragged to a certain list, Assign a member based on the label added to the card.
Trello Automation used to be a Trello Power-Up called Butler, but it’s now a built-in feature.
If you combine Email for Trello + Trello Automation, you can help your team automate their email tasks and create powerful workflows.
Here are some ideas...
Move emails between lists
Sometimes, replies to your emails can get lost on a busy board. You could use Butler to move cards to the top of the ‘Inbox’ list when a reply comes in via email.
Here’s what the Trello Automation rule would look like:
Add a checklist of tasks
You might have a checklist that needs to get done for certain emails. e.g. You could add the “Process Quotation” checklist when an email comes in from a customer requesting a quote.
Add a due date
To ensure that your team are responding timeously to email requests, automatically add a due date for new incoming emails.
Use custom fields in your Trello Automations
Trello Automation lets you automate custom fields: you can set custom fields automatically and you can react to changes to their value. In the example below, a checklist item to call the client is added automatically. The details of the client (name and contact number) is pulled from the custom fields.
Send email with Trello Automations
Email for Trello supports a special syntax that can turn a Trello comment into an email. Trello comments can be added based on triggers, this means that Trello Automation can be used to automatically send out emails based on triggers - e.g. Send a status email when a card is dragged to a certain list, Automatically send reminder/follow-up emails based on the card due date.
Read more about how to send an email using Trello Automation.
These are just a few ideas - there are thousands of possible automations.
To create, edit and access your Trello Automation rules, click on Automation from the toolbar at the top of your board.
A new window will open where you can add/edit your triggers and actions.
For more information and examples to get started, check out Trello’s Introduction to Trello Automation.
