What questions do you have about Trello automation/Butler?

[Brittany Joiner]

I'm trying to think of some content ideas and I want to write more about Butler/Trello automation and also challenge myself to improve my skills there and get as advanced as I can. 

So, I'm persuing the community for various posts and questions that relate to Butler/automation, but I also wanted to throw out a post and give folks an opportunity to ask their Trello automation questions in one place! If I can, I'll try to reply briefly and answer them here. If I can't, or if it looks like it's going to be a longer discussion... I'll collect those ideas and pick a few to write community articles about!

(Will probably also combine all that content in a Trello automation course at some point if there's interest in that, so feel free to mention if you'd like that or you prefer one-off questions in the community!)

So here is the discussion. Feel free to pick one (or more!) of the following prompts and reply with your answer!

- What have you always wanted to know about Trello automation?

- What have you tried to automate in Trello but can't seem to figure out how?

- What do you wish you could automate in Trello?

Can't wait to see what everyone posts!

[Emma Suarez]

I have tried to automate that a person get added to a card automatically to a card when they create it. I find that there are several cards with no member on it because they forgot to add themselves.

[Brittany Joiner]

@Emma Suarez try this!

[The Second Sight Inspection Company]

Hello Brittany,

Thank you for taking questions!  I am relatively new to Trello, though we use it daily.  I am having automation challenges.  Can you point me to a comparison between the capabilities of Butler vs Zapier?  I have not been able to find a simple comparison between them.

[Brittany Joiner]

@The Second Sight Inspection Company welcome to the Trello fam! 

As far as Butler vs Zapier goes, i think the biggest difference is Zapier works with automating data between other apps, while Butler shines with automating everything within Trello itself. For instance, if you want automation that updates something in Trello when you do something in github, then you'll need Zapier. But if you want something that adds a checklist or a label to a card when it moves to a specific list, you'll want Butler! 

You could technically use Zapier for automation just inside of Trello as well, but I've found Butler has more features - because its managed by Trello itself and doesn't have to connect to an API like Zapier. So I've generally found more in-Trello automation options with Butler, but if you're looking to automate between other apps, like Gmail or Github, or, well, any app besides Trello, then you'll need Zapier!

Let me know if I explained that well or if should try again :) 

[The Second Sight Inspection Company]

That explanation was perfect, thank you!   Seems that we will need Zapier after all, since we would like to integrate additional apps once we solve a few issues.

We are having a terrible time with our automations; some seem to work exactly as commanded, others either don’t work, or result in a card move/copy that was not intended.   When we look for assistance, there is almost TOO MUCH  Trello advice on the internet.   Do you know of any consultants (yourself included) who would be willing to get on a screen share with us, to show us what we are doing wrong, and how to fix?    We’re happy to pay for the consultant’s time.  I have a feeling that our mistakes are simple for a more experienced user to locate and teach us how to repair.  

We are considering migrating our entire work flow processes to Trello, if we can just get over the hump.   

[Brittany Joiner]

@The Second Sight Inspection Company yeah i totally get it - there's so much content it's hard to sift through! I'm happy to help. Feel free to shoot me an email and we can coordinate a time to chat! If I am not able to help or if you want some other folks opinions, this post is a handful of Trello Automation Experts specifically: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Trello-questions/Need-to-hire-a-Trello-Automation-Expert/qaq-p/1824485 and depending on which apps you use, some of them might have more experience with other apps.

[The Second Sight Inspection Company]

Thanks so much Brittany!  I'll shoot you an email.