How to set up a desk booking system in Trello for our small company?

[Andrea Szabo]

I’m looking for some advice on setting up a desk booking system in Trello for our small company. We have seven employees but only six desks (workstations). It’s rare that everyone is in the office at the same time, as employees have the option to work from home. However, when all desks are occupied, the seventh employee needs to work remotely.

We currently have a free Trello account but plan to upgrade to Premium soon.

Here’s my idea for the booking system:

• Create a Trello card for each week with five checklists (one for each weekday).
• Each checklist will list the desk numbers as individual items.
• Using the Premium feature, I’ll allow employees to assign themselves to a checklist item (a desk) for a specific day.

I’d also like to automate the following:

1. Clear the assignments at the end of each workday.
2. Modify the day on the card to prepare for the same day next week (e.g., refresh Monday’s list for the next week).

Do you think this is a good approach, or is there a better way to handle this in Trello? I searched the forums but couldn’t find anything similar.

Thank you so much for your help!

[Sahir Maharaj]

Hello @Andrea Szabo

Based on my understanding, your proposed desk booking system in Trello is both practical and effective for a small team :)

Using checklists for each day and assigning desks works well with the Premium features. Automating the daily reset and weekly refresh can be achieved with Trello's built-in automation (Butler). Set rules to clear assignments at the end of the day and duplicate the checklist for the following week.

If managing multiple cards becomes cumbersome, consider using Power-Ups like "Calendar" or integrating with external scheduling tools for enhanced visualization.

Hope this helps.

[Andrea Szabo]

Thanks, @Sahir Maharaj !

We're working on building this system. We'll use "Calendar" but we want to reserve it for project-related items only.

My idea is to create a "rolling" checklist. Instead of duplicating entries, we'd implement an automated process where at the end of each day, the assignment is deleted and its due date is shifted forward by 7 days, setting it for the next corresponding weekday (e.g., the following Monday). We don't need to maintain information about who is sitting at which desk.

I hope, we manage to do it.