Need help creating and emailing reports
Asked by Deb Breen:

Hi,

I've been using Trello for a while but haven't not had a need for automation until now. There are a lot of trigger options but none that seem to fit what I need to do.

As an Admin I need to be able to send reports to each board member that includes a list of their open cards and the status. And I'd like to send this 2x per week before our team meetings.

[I've combed through the documentation](https://support.atlassian.com/trello/docs/creating-reports-with-butler/) and found that it's possible to create command line reports (and examples of syntax) but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get to the command line. I'm hoping it's something very basic that for some reason is eluding me!

Any help on this would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance!

PS: Is it safe to assume that "Butler" and "Automation" are synonymous? If not, what's the difference?


Answers:
author: Silvia
body: Hi Deb,

Not entirely sure if you can do this with Automation, but Blue Cat Reports is a 3rd party Trello power-up that can help you show cards from all your selected boards sorted by selected lists and filters. After you configure everything you want to see in each report, you can schedule to send them out to relevant team members on a weekly (daily/monthly also available) via email. Here is what scheduling looks like:

![schedule-report.PNG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/205853i2E48C3D6557664E2/image-dimensions/321x403?v=v2 "schedule-report.PNG")

When you sign up for a trial with us at [Blue Cat](https://trello.com/power-ups/5d9c90aa18965066fcd44730/reports-by-blue-cat), you can reach out to our support through the app and we are happy to help with creating a reporting list or anything else you might need.

comments: author: Deb Breen
body: Thanks Silvia. I'm working just with one board and want to filter open cards by user and email them to individual users. I do want to do this on a regular schedule but also want to be able to send reports ad hoc. And I want to be able to test it ad hoc instead of scheduling it. Is there a way to do that with Blue Cat?


author: Silvia
body: Hi [@Deb Breen](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4389790) for ad hoc report sharing you can always use our Export \> Print option and send the report file via anything :)


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: Hi [@Deb Breen](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4389790) ! Butler and Automation are the same thing, yes - sometimes referred to as [Butler automation](https://support.atlassian.com/trello/docs/butler-overview/) :) What I'd suggest is creating a schedule command using Butler automation. So it could look something like this:  

![Butler report 2.PNG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/206144i4C9CC9FB46F8562B/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Butler report 2.PNG")  

The output looks like this:  

![butler report 3.PNG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/206145i1993C7AF6527E859/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "butler report 3.PNG")  

I think the only way would be to create a separate command for each board member.   

You can also choose what [variables](https://support.atlassian.com/trello/docs/butler-variables/) you want to include in that email report. The example I gave just pulled in the card name, card link, and due date.  

Also, the example I gave filtered on cards that are due this week, but you can obviously customize that if you just want to pull all cards. Additionally, it was scheduled for once a week on the Monday, but I guess you could copy the command and have the same one fire off on another day of the week if you want to send it twice a week.  

<br />

comments: author: Deb Breen
body: [@Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2109993) thank you so much! My challenge with that is I have no idea how to bring up the command line- when I click on Automation, "Create Rule" it requires me to enter a trigger and I cannot enter anything in the command line. Is this a permissions thing? Or is there another way to get to the command line?


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: [@Deb Breen](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4389790) the example I sent is actually a schedule command, rather than a rule. There's an overview of the different types of commands in the link I included, along with how to create a schedule command.

Also, what do you mean by command line? There shouldn't be any restrictions around who can create commands. If you're able to share any screenshots, that would be good!


Tags: automation

butler

email

report