Butler Variables Don't Show Up in E-Mail
Asked by Yavuz Yaylak:

Hello Guys,

Trying to set up my very first Butler Report using this help article here: <https://help.trello.com/article/1157-variables>.

What I want basically is, to send out a monthly report of tasks done and time spend on time (for which I've created a custome variable). I couldn't quite figure out how to list all cards in the e-mail and maybe to sum up the total number of hours spend (1+1=2...)

I've set up the buther and ran a test but none of the variable show up:

**Topic**

Monthly report on work performed {monthname} {year}

**Message**

Dear Ms. X,  
Dear Mr. Y,

Thank you for your trust and cooperation.

Below is a list of the work we performed during the month of {monthname} and the time spent on each task.

\[{cardname}\]({cardlink}), ({Datum}), ({Stundenaufwand}) Stunden

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Here is a qucik video demonstration on the problem: <https://somup.com/c3VZDbZxiS>


Answers:
author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: Hi [@Yavuz Yaylak](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4715167) ! Welcome to the community :) you're missing the {$report} part in your email message. There's nothing in the email message that is actually pulling the report contents. The body of the email should be something like:  

```
Dear Ms. X,
Dear Mr. Y,

Thank you for your trust and cooperation.

Below is a list of the work we performed during the month of {monthname} and the time spent on each task.

?{$report}



Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
```

<br />

You'll probably want to format your report as well, so your command should start something like this:  

```
create a report with all cards in list "Erledigt"using pattern "- [{cardname}]({cardlink})"
```

(you can add your other variables into the pattern if you need to display other card details other than just the card name).  

<br />

Let me know how it goes!

comments: author: Yavuz Yaylak
body: Well, that's embarrassing (:

Thanks I've got the variables now showing up. There are couple of things though:

1. Been using this here: - \[{cardname}\]({cardlink}), {{%Datum}}, {{%Stundenaufwand}} Stunde(n)

But the bullet points seem off:

![](https://i.imgur.com/YeijRZ9.png)

I've tried it with a comma at the end but same thing.

2- Is there a way to show those variables in different languages, for instance in German?

3- I'd like add the %Stundenaufwand and show up in total (how many hours spend on cards in a month as a result

Total: %Stundenaufwand (in a Month)


author: Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows
body: Easy mistake! It's not the most intuitive IMO :)  

I'll try answer your questions below:  

1. That's strange ? can you copy the full command and paste it here so I can see? Mine looks like this and I don't get the indented bullet points:  

```
every day, create a report with all cards not assigned to anyone using pattern "- [{cardname}]({cardlink}), {{%GTD}}, {{%Priority}}", and send an email notification to "hannah@simplaworkflows.com" with subject "Unassigned cards" and message "Hey people! \n\nHere is the report for {day}:\n\n{$report}\n\nThanks"
```

2. I don't think there's a way to have variables show in a different language, unfortunately. A good feature request for Trello though if you wanted to submit it! In the meantime, you could just change the format so "January 3" shows like "03/01". More details on date formatting [here](https://help.trello.com/article/1159-arithmetic-in-date-variables) and [here](https://momentjs.com/docs/#/displaying/).   

3. Trello doesn't really have a way to create formulas like in excel I guess just because of the nature of Trello being more like a kanban tool. You do have power-ups like [Smart Fields](https://trello.com/power-ups/5e2212c3ba57415ef2ef9352/smart-fields), but I don't believe you can pull that data into Butler. If this is really important, you could look at exporting Trello data on a monthly basis into an excel sheet. I also know Unito does a sync between Trello and Gsheets if you want a more automated option.


author: Yavuz Yaylak
body: Hi [@Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2109993) thank you for taking the time and assisting me with this.

Did a little tweeking and got the bullets fixed:

every month on the 1st at 10:35 am, create a report with all cards in list "Erledigt" using pattern "- \[{cardname}\]({cardlink}), {{%Datum}} , {{%Stundenaufwand}} Stunden", and send an email notification to "emai@woogency.de" with subject "Monatlicher Bericht ?ber die geleistete Arbeit {monthname} {year}" and message "Sehr geehrte Frau X,\\nSehr geehrter Herr Y,\\n\\nwir danken Ihnen f?r Ihr Vertrauen und Ihre Mitarbeit. \\n\\nNachstehend finden Sie eine Liste der Arbeiten, die wir im Monat {monthname} durchgef?hrt haben, sowie die f?r jede Aufgabe aufgewendete Zeit. \\n\\n{$report}\\n\\nBitte z?gern Sie nicht, uns zu kontaktieren, wenn Sie Fragen haben."

Yeah I figured, did spend a lot of time on this now and just to discover the limitations won't help us in the long run. I need to create a workflow which is efficient in terms of cost and effort. Combining support - customer communication - development process together.

1. User sends an e-mail

2. Answer and/or create a jira task inside trello using Gmail by cardbox

3. Log the time spend in the card using custom fields.

4. When done, move the card to "Erledigt"

5. Collect the report at the end of the month

We still have to heavily modify reports, calculate manually how many hours spend. Format the e-mail and send it to the customer.