Creating cards by email: how do I add a due date?
Asked by Michael Havemann:

I regularly create Trello cards by forwarding emails. With "@NAME" on its own line in the email body I can put myself (or anybody else) on the card to be created.

I'd like to put a due date on the card to be created, in a similar way, i.e. from within the email. Is this possible? And if so, how does it work?


Answers:
author: Michael Cryne
body: Is this (rather convoluted) method still the only way to add a due date to a created card?

Thanks for any tips.


author: Fred Guimar?es
body: Hi [@Esme Crutchley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3555478) !

I've the same problem, but i don't have the same options...

I need fill the due date with the time and hour of e-mail description.

Example:

**E-mail subject:** New installation for Fred Guimar?es**E-mail description:**2020-10-29 14:00

Screenshots attacheds.

Thank you!![1.PNG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/115125iA59F88ED27F87AD8/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "1.PNG")


author: Esme Crutchley
body: Hi [@Mattias Van doninck](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/57105)

<br />

Thank you for that! The first problem that I can see is that, yes, you're right, it's looking for text "a date" - if you change it to {a date} it might work. Because it's looking for that specific information, you want to add curly brackets to indicate that it's not a specific thing that you're asking it to find.

<br />

Have you seen the [Trello help article on Butler Variables](https://help.trello.com/article/1157-variables)?

<br />

In the 'Other' section at the bottom, I found this:

![Screen Shot 2020-04-02 at 9.20.51 AM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/89033i96CF290037153958/image-dimensions/581x64?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2020-04-02 at 9.20.51 AM.png")

So that might be something to play with to see if that works?  
Butler is a bit of a pain, but once you get it right, it's perfect! Keep trying, and please ask anything else that's causing a problem or comment back if it worked (or not)!

<br />

Esme ?

comments: author: NOC KOSC
body: Thanks Esme for your advices  

I have the same probleme. I need to send mails from my mailbox into my trello board.  
These mail contain these information in subject   
PWI - Planned Work Information - XXXXXXXXX- \[2020-08-19 22:00:00\]  
I send these mail in my trello and i would like to parse the date for set the due date with the same date of my mail subject  

I try this script with buttler

```
when a card with a name containing "{isodate}" is moved into list "Planned Work Information", add member @lalannesebastien to the card
```

I hope buttler can recognize the caracter 2020-08-19 but i don't have any action after.  
I try to change my title from 2020-08-19 to 2020-08-07 (today) and i my script work.  
Do you know a way for just recognize in first time the date format (and not the date of the day) and in second time set the due date to the subject date  

Regards


author: Esme Crutchley
body: Hi [@NOC KOSC](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4042861)

Welcome to the Community!

I'm the same, I use the ISO date for everything and it's a bit tricky!

Maybe something like {year}-{monthnumberlong}-19 - that would give Butler the information in { } and then add the -19 at the end?

So maybe a rule like "when a card with a name containing "{year}-{monthnumberlong}-{\*}" is moved into..." - that way, you're giving Butler the month and year, and the day is a wildcard.

Would that work do you think? Let us know!

Esme :)


author: Matthew N
body: Hey Michael

There's a way to accomplish this, but the setup will depend on how you want to do this.

Do you need to write a specific due date in the email and have that assigned as the due date on the card? Or would one of these predefined due date rules work:

![duedatememail.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/25683iD387097120100A69/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "duedatememail.png")

comments: author: Michael Havemann
body: Hi Matthew,

I'd need to write a specific date in the email and have that assigned to the card.


author: Matthew N
body: Ok, you'll need to use Butler Bot Automation

To add custom automation using Butlerbot, follow these steps:

1) Add Butlerbot to your board here: <https://www.butlerfortrello.com/dashboard.html>  
-- A new list will be created titled "Butler"  
2) Add a new card to the Butler list, using the following text

*`when a card with a name containing a date is emailed into the board, set due on the date`*

***`or`***

*`when a card with a description containing a date is emailed into the board, set due on the date`*

***`or`***

*`when a card with a name or a description containing a date is emailed into the board, set due on the date`*


author: Michael Havemann
body: I wasn't aware that Butlerbot is that powerful. It works perfectly well, and Butler recognizes dates in several formats, as well. I tried yyyy-mm-dd and dd.mm.yyyy and both worked fine.

Thank you very much, Matthew!


author: Matthew N
body: You're welcome. As I mentioned in the first comment, there's some predetermined due date rules. Those are available from the Butler Power Up. The Butler team really wants users to utilize the power up whenever possible, instead of using the bot, because of how many people are using the bot. But in your case, there's not a power up rule that reads the specific date. So that's why I recommended the bot instead.

But for other automations, I recommend checking into the power up instead of using the bot. The power up has recently been enhanced, and can do quite a bit.

The power-up offers 3 options:  
1. Buttons  
2. Rules  
3. Schedule (Calendar/Due Date)

1. **Buttons**: This will help you create a command for either a card or a board. A card button will appear when you open the card, and the board button will be available on the top right next to "Show Menu". The button triggers the command when you click on it. For example, you can have a card button with the command: "move the card to the top of list "Done", add the green label to the card, and check all the items in checklist "checklist name" on the card". Every time you open a card and click on that button, the power-up will move that card to the top of the list on Done list, and it'll add a green label to the card, and it'll also check all the items in a checklist if that card has one. Similarly, you can create commands like this for the boards as well. These commands can be customized a lot based on your preference.

2. **Rules:** is more of an automation option based on "When". For example: "when a card is added to the board, add the "Things To Do" checklist to the card, add member @username to the card, and set due in 24 hours". This way, whenever you add a card to the board, the power-up will automatically add the Things To Do checklist (or any checklist you mention) to the card, it'll add the member you've specified using their username to the card, and it'll also set the due date to 24 hours from that moment. These commands can be customized a lot based on your preference.

3. **Schedule:** is a command that'll trigger based on Calendar Date or Due Date. For example: "every monday, create a new card with title "Appointment with Doc" in list "Appointments" and add the "Things to get checked" checklist to the card and set due in 5 hours". This will basically create a card every monday titled Appointment with doc in list called Appointments and it'll add a checklist called Things to get checked and it'll also add a Due Date for 5 hours from the time the card was added. These commands can be customized a lot based on your preference.


author: Mattias Van doninck
body: Hi

This is exactly what we need. But, I must be doing something wrong. I created the card in the Butler column with the descrption "*`when a card with a description containing a date is emailed into the board, set due on the date"`*. But nothing happens when an email is sent. Yes, the card is created. But it doesn't pick up the date in the description to turn it into a due date.


author: Esme Crutchley
body: Hi [@Mattias Van doninck](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/57105)

Unfortunately, Butler bot doesn't exist anymore, Trello bought Butler in 2019, so previous bots won't work anymore.

Can you attach a screenshot of the actual rule you're running and maybe we can see where it's not firing properly?

Esme :)


author: Mattias Van doninck
body: Hi [@Esme Crutchley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3555478)

Thanks for your reply. Here's a screenshot.![trellorule1.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/88917iE2DC6201B15073B1/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "trellorule1.png")![trellorule2.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/88918i293FA477DF5C11B9/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "trellorule2.png")I guess it doesn't realise in the trigger that I'm looking for a date, it just looks for the words "a date".

And in the actions, it goes completely wrong. I tried putting an action "set due date on next Monday". That works (when I mention "a date" in the description). But I want it to take the date from the description itself, whatever that date is.

I hope you direct me in the good direction.