Due date automation

Question

Hi There,

I'm sure this is simple and I'm only finding it hard as I'm a new user!

I have a set up a board with the following lists: Today, This Week, <30 days, >30 days and I'm trying to automate card moves by the dates.

However, I suspect that my automations are conflicting since they're not working as expected.

If I just set the first 2 up:

1. If due date is this week, move to list This Week, and

2. If due date is today then move to list Today

When I create a card and add the due date to today it moves it to This Week, instead of Today.

My understanding is that the rules run from the top?

Even if I disable all other automations other than the second one (on the day a card is due, move the card to the top of list "Today") and create a new card and add today as the due date, it doesn't move.

Thanks in advance!

Luciana Munhoz · Answer

Hi @Roland Dunzendorfer Happy to help! And this case you can use the due date automation type and select the trigger "x days before a card is due".

Here's an example:

1 day before a card is due, move the card to the top of list XXXX.

Hope this helps!

Roland Dunzendorfer · Answer

I hope it's OK to add to this thread, as the wording of the trigger ist not clear for me: In the automation I find only this wording for the due date trigger:

In your trigger the part "is set on" is missing.

The wording "is set on" triggers only at the moment a due date is set on a new card. But I want a card to be moved  just like @Ben Ewens mentioned a day before a due date.

@Lena Yasienieva can you give me a hint how I can chnage the wording of the trigger?

Thanx in advance!

Roland

Lena Yasienieva · Answer

Hi Ben! I am Lena from the Trello Support team. I will try to help you out! :)

I wanted to clarify something about how automation rules work. Automation rules run concurrently if triggered at the same time. If one automation rule triggers the other automation rule then one will run after another. It is a shame we don't have full text of the rules to give you more details, but no worries– I have an idea of what you’re dealing with from your description!

Let's start with the If due date is today then move to list Today

Automations don't trigger retroactively,  so any cards that are already set to be due today won't activate this rule. I know it sounds a bit tricky! This automation will only trigger for a card when it transitions from not being due today to being due today, usually around midnight.

So, if you enable this rule today, the cards that are already due today won’t be affected. But any cards due tomorrow will get moved to the "Today" list somewhere around midnight.

Now, let's look at the If due date is this week, move to list This Week rule.

I can't tell for sure what kind of rule you set up, so I wouldn't be abele to go into much detail about it, but I have a feeling that the cards are moving to this list from "Today" because this automation activates after the cards have been sorted into the "Today" list. And since today is technically aways this week, the cards are moved to the list "This Week".

To prevent this from happening you could add an additional condition. For example, If due date is today then move to list Today + add label "Today".
And for If due date is this week  +  move each card without "Today" label to list "This Week".

I hope this helps!