Butler automatization for due date email reminder - Problemlevel: Expert

Question

Hello!

I have problems with my due date butler automatizations, and I hope to find someone to help me here.

The goal is to remind my employees to accomplish certain training courses within a period of 10 Days.

Here is how I tried:

When a Card (= a Card that contains informations about the new training course) comes into a certain list on an employee board, the due date is set to 10 days.

After 5 days, I want them to receive an email that tells them that there is a new training course related card on their board. When there are only 2 days left bevor the due, I want them to receive another email to remind them. And so on.

As an example I want to show you my butler creation for the reminder after 5 days:

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when a due date less than 5 days from now is moved in a card in list "Training courses" without any labels,

send an email notification to "max@mustermann.de" with subject "New training course online!" and message "Hi!

A new training course is online, please watch it and trigger the due as complete: {triggercardlink}
\n
Thanks!

THIS MESSAGE WAS AUTOMATICLY GENERATED – DO NOT ANSWERn---",

and add the green label to the card

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Further example for how I built my system (reminder when there are 2 days left):

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when a due date less than 2 days from now is moved in a card in list " Training courses" with the green label,

send an email notification to " max@mustermann.de" with subject "2 days left" and message "(TEXT)",

add the yellow label to the card, and remove the green label from the card

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And here is the problem. To test my system, I have tried different methods by using “set” and not “moved”, regarding the due date, to name one example. But I couldn’t manage to set a system that accomplished to send these reminder emails automatically, it only works when I move the due date by hand to trigger certain reminders.

Please help me, I’ve lost a lot of time on this issue.

If you need more infomations about my issue, please let me know.

With kind regards

Dan Ivory_4y9mok · Accepted Answer

Hi @xiller

I'm not 100% sure about your question but I'll have a go!

I think you have slightly the wrong trigger set-up. Currently, you have it so if the due date is set/moved then send the email. which is why you need to manually move the due date yourself for this to trigger.

However what you actually want is the trigger to be when the card is moved (into a certain list), not the due date, then send the email.

So try using this instead.... go to

Rules -> Card move -> "When a card is added to list Training courses [make sure you have the advanced toggle on (top right)]" -> click the filter icon and Dates -> use "Due in less than 2 days".

Then your Action can be what you had set it as before.

"send an email notification to " max@mustermann.de" with subject "2 days left" and message "(TEXT)",

add the yellow label to the card, and remove the green label from the card"

(Ive not tested this part but will trust you its correct)

So the final command will look something like this (but with your specific labels etc)

NOTE! This is currently set up for when a card is "Added to the list". you may need to duplicate this command and change that to be "moved into the list" to cover existing cards being moved into the list rather than being created directly in that list. (hope that makes sense, let me know if not)

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TESTING IT!

The other challenge with these is it's not easy to test them! I don't see a "Run now" button annoyingly so I think all you can do is create a new card and make sure to set the due date to be further than 2 days in advance (eg I'd use 3 days from now to be safe). Or else I think you will have this "retroactive" issue mentioned here...

Then you have to wait 2 days to see if it works as expected!

You could test the Action part of your command with a "the moment the card is due trigger" like this...(note this is a Due Date trigger not a Rule)

and then create a new card and set the due date for 2 minutes later. Then wait 2 minutes to see if you get an email sent to you.

Hope that helps, let me know how it goes!

Dan

PS if this was helpful and you're looking for more Butler tips, consider subscribing to my Trello focused YouTube channel. I'd really appreciate it! :)