How to automate Due Date using "set due date the next...(Tuesday)"

Question

Hello,

I was wondering if this is possible to automate the due date assignment.

It would assign the due date based on the list. So moving a card to list "A" would set the due date to Tuesday, this week.

The problem is that I found only 2 options for this automation and they seem to work the same.

On the first screen, 2 possible rules are using the next / the next week option.

The Edge case here is when I move a card to this list on Tuesday.

I set the due date to 11:59 PM on purpose so that the automation understands that next Tuesday is today.

The behaviour is different than I was hoping for. For this exact case no matter which option I choose, the set due date is always the Tuesday next week so there is no difference between option "the next" and "the next week on"

Could you take a look and advise me on how can I correct this behaviour? Maybe I misunderstood how this option works.

Lara · Answer

Hi Bob,

I've just replied to your support ticket.

Our team has looked into this and can confirm that this is currently expected behaviour. When a card is moved on Tuesday and there is a rule where the trigger is "next Tuesday", it's expected that the due date will be set for the next Tuesday.

With that said, I definitely understand it'd be helpful if the rule worked in a way that suits use cases like yours, so I've flagged this as a feature request with the product team.

All the best,

Lara
The Trello Team

Dom Jay · Answer

Hello @Tymek Zapała ,

Thanks for taking the time to figure out this with me.

I didn't know there was something like "when a card due date is added to list...". This is nice.

After some testing on my board, however, I don't see how I can make this automation universal for a whole week.

Assuming today is Friday and I set it up as you suggested and put a card in Friday list it will assign correctly the due date for this Friday.

When I attach this rule to all weekday lists it will always assign the due date relative to today's day. So even on Sunday, I would have a due date of Friday 23:59.

To make it work I would have to create this additional overwriting rule every day to change due dates and this is no different than manually setting up the due dates during the weekdays. During some Monday I would need to modify all cards' due dates to this Monday and not Monday next week. I'm looking for ways how to automate this, cause when you have 30 cards moved inside of this list, then the manual action requires some effort.

Tymek Zapała · Answer

@Dom Jay

You can try work around it by creating two automations. First will be your regular automation:

when a card is added to list "wtorek", set due date the next thursday at 5:20 pm

Second will be automation that overrides first one:

when a card due today is added to list "wtorek", set due date today at 11:59 pm

I tested in on my board and it first moves the cart to the next thursday incorrectly, and then corrects the move by applying second automation. I don't know if the order of automation is important here but probably is. See attched screen for reference:

Let me know if that works for you.