Help with reports or emails from Trello Cards
Asked by Rachael Chiricosta:

Hi,

I'm needing to set up some kind of automation with my Trello cards with either a daily or weekly report or an email from board with card details.  
Problem is the report has a link to the Trello card and I don't want that and I'm needing to email different cards or queues to different people.

I need to have either parts of or the whole description of the card if parts aren't possible in the report or email.

I did download the powerup Sendboard but that has a limit of 50 emails a month and if I was to use that to email from every card I would need more.

I have had a play around with reports put am having a bit of trouble with the patterns, not really sure how that works.

Below is what I set up but that doesn't work:

every weekday, send an email notification to "rachael.chiricosta@austcommunitymedia.com.au" with subject "Daily Story Link Report" and message "Please find your weekly report for your story links:\\n{cardname} {carddescription}", and create a report with all cards in list "Done" using pattern "{cardname} {carddescription}"

Any advice/ideas?!


Answers:
author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: [@Rachael Chiricosta](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5423981) welcome to the community ?  

Try this instead:  

```
every weekday, create a report with all cards in list "Done" using pattern "{cardname} {carddescription}", and send an email notification to "rachael.chiricosta@austcommunitymedia.com.au" with subject "Daily Story Link Report" and message "Please find your weekly report for your story links:\n{$report}
```

<br />

You need to add the {$report} variable in your message so it pulls through in your email.  

I'd also suggest formatting things to make it a bit easier to read. For example, use this pattern: "- \[{cardname}\](cardlink) - {carddescription}" to show a bulleted list of cards with the link. Similar to this:  

![screenshot_ReportExample](https://images.ctfassets.net/zsv3d0ugroxu/5sMvwb8QIUNJ6UBw2Lgn8A/bac39aa527053dd29ea43eb799b77617/screenshot_ReportExample)  

comments: author: Rachael Chiricosta
body: That's fantastic, thanks Hannah!  
On the bullet points, is it the hyphen that ads the bullet point?  
So If I wanted to go with just the cardname would the pattern be just - {cardname} ?


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: Yes, that's right! The hyphen will give you a bullet point.


author: Rachael Chiricosta
body: Thanks [@Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2109993)the hyphen only gives me a hyphen for some reason, not a bullet point but that's enough to look better, thank you :-)


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: Oh strange! I'm not sure why that would happen ? maybe there's a space in there somewhere? Have a look at [this guide](https://support.atlassian.com/trello/docs/creating-reports-with-butler/) under "How to use a pattern to customize your report". It gives an example of formatting your report using bullet points. Maybe create a test and copy that exact text in the guide into the pattern field to see what happens. Here's the info below as well:

```
- [{cardname}]({cardlink}) ({cardmemberusernames}) {{%Priority}}
```

It should look like this in butler:  
![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/305331iA57138706684661D/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "image.png")  


author: Maria
body: Hi [@Rachael Chiricosta](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5423981)

It's Mary from [Planyway power-up for Trello](https://planyway.com/trello?utm_source=atlassiancommunity&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=atlassianquestions)

Given the limitations you've encountered with existing Power-Ups like SendBoard, you might consider leveraging Trello's built-in automation tool, Butler, along with external automation services like Zapier or Integromat (now rebranded as Make) for more flexibility and higher limits.

### 1. **Understand Butler Limitations and Workarounds** {#toc-hId-2112207864}

The automation you've set up with Butler in Trello seems to have the right idea but might be limited by Butler's syntax and the capabilities provided directly within Trello. The `{cardname}` and `{carddescription}` variables are a good start, but ensuring they're used correctly within Butler's email action is crucial.

### 2. **Using External Automation Tools** {#toc-hId-304753401}

Zapier or Make are powerful tools that can automate workflows between Trello and email services like Gmail or Outlook. Here's a general approach:

* **Trigger**: Set up a trigger for when a card is moved to the "Done" list or on a schedule to check this list daily/weekly.
* **Action**: Create an action to fetch the card details you need (like name and description).
* **Formatting**: Use a custom action to format the email content as you wish, excluding the Trello card link.
* **Sending Emails**: Finally, set up an action to send the email through your email provider, using the formatted content from the previous step.

### 3. **Example Zapier Setup for Daily/Weekly Reports** {#toc-hId--1502701062}

* **Trigger**: "New Card in List" in Trello or "Schedule" by Zapier to run daily/weekly.
* **Action**: Use a Trello action to find the card(s) you want to report on based on your criteria.
* **Formatter** : Use Zapier's Formatter to create the text for your email, pulling in `{cardname}` and `{carddescription}` without including a link.
* **Email**: Use an Email by Zapier action or your email provider's action to send the custom email to the intended recipients.

### 4. **Customizing for Different Recipients** {#toc-hId-984811771}

You can create multiple Zaps/automations for different recipients or lists. Each Zap can be tailored with specific filters to only include cards relevant to each recipient.

comments: author: Rachael Chiricosta
body: Thanks Maria, I'll check this out!


Tags: report