Is there a way to show time spans instead of just due dates in Trello?

Michele Bennett Walton June 14, 2017

I'd like to show start dates and end dates. 

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Michael Pryor
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
February 16, 2021
Linda February 16, 2021

I was so happy to see this new feature but the start date and time are not properly appearing in my iCal. Instead I am still getting a default time block of one hour before due date. Do you know if this is going to be fixed?

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Nathan Garner February 18, 2021

I agree, when I add a start and end date and look in the new calendar view, it only shows the card in the due date position. And if the dates span more than 1 day, it pops it up into the 'All day' banner... even if it's not all day. This makes it tricky to plan your day as you can't see if any tasks clash.

An unfortunately when I add a task with a date, it doesn't show up in either the calendar view or timeline. It shows up in my iCal though which is odd.

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Jeff Bean February 18, 2021

@Linda @Nathan Garner thanks for reporting your experience on this issue. I'm loosely evaluating this issue for possible deployment in our company, so I'm replying mainly to hear of any news.

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Nathan Garner February 19, 2021

For phase 1 it's great, it just needs some work to make it useable for lots of projects... I also noticed that Sunday and Monday are greyed out when it should be Saturday and Sunday, being the weekend. So I suspect this is a v1.1 and we have a few updates coming (hopefully).

Mariano Tello Nocetti February 25, 2021

Start date was showing up for me until yesterday that it disappeared.

 

I'm confused. 

Jeff Bean February 26, 2021

@Mariano Tello Nocetti it did disappear. I also had a separate "Start Date" button in the "Add to Card" list, but it's now gone.

The start date functionality is still there, but Trello has now hidden it.

It's in the dialog box launched by the "Due Date" button.

Trello, it's bad enough that you're messing around with the interface after Beta. C'mon.

But worse, you made it worse. *DO NOT HIDE THE START DATE IN THE DUE DATE INTERFACE.* This is not how I think of it, it is not how I'll use it, it's adding more work/clicks, it's not transparent, and it's counter-intuitive. It's just bad.

It makes no more sense than if you hid the Attachment function behind the Checklist button.

Jeff Bean February 28, 2021

Start Dates are also not working correctly. Clicking on a card's start date launches the "Change Due Date" dialog box which, as noted above, it shouldn't be but that's where it is. The problem now is that the cursor defaults to the *Due Date.*

So when you click on the Start Date to change the Start Date, you're actually posed to edit the Due Date.

Not good. This function was definitely released before they had tested it. I'm not a fan of being a beta tester for software I'm evaluating.

26 votes
Cameron Roe July 18, 2017

Hi Matthew,

 

I would also like to have this in the calendar view. Is that any plan to release this feature. It's tough to see what's currently being worked on when the card only shows up on it's due date. Ideally it would show the full lifecycle of the card during the time it's being processed. Would love to have the ability to set date ranges on the card dates!

Samuel Talleux December 22, 2020

3,5 years later.... :-(

+1 for this really missing and simple feature!

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Sofía Bosch December 16, 2021

+1!

Ryan Mueller February 24, 2022

Still Waiting for this in 2022...

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Michael Pryor
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
February 24, 2022

Isn’t this what the timeline view is for?

https://help.trello.com/article/1246-timeline-view

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12 votes
Lee Anne McGaha July 30, 2018

Plus one for start dates and end dates on the calendar without having to use Elegantt. It's the only thing keeping me from making a switch to Trello

10 votes
Shane November 2, 2017

This seems like a rather obvious feature that Trello should think about integrating....

7 votes
P T February 22, 2019

Does Trello read these boards?  I agree it seems OBVIOUS the cards should have date ranges and the CHECKLISTS should have due dates.

Trello... this is the one thing that is preventing me from being a paid customer.

Abbizzy April 12, 2019

These are the two issues that led me to this board.  I have my whole company on board with using trello but we need the ability to attach due dates to check list items and put date ranges on tasks.  So frustrating. 

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Shanna Daly May 17, 2019

Me too, same things that lead me here as well and same things that may lead me away from signing up :(

2 votes
Abigaël de Vries May 1, 2018

So this toppic is from june 2017 and still it is not possible to show a startdate in a card? This is sooo sad!

2 votes
Christina Altomare January 30, 2018

+1 please! esp for calendering - it's an incredibly simple yet imperative feature - look at google calendar? :-S

1 vote
Jeff Bean February 16, 2021

I just started updating my system to incorporate Start Dates. Maybe too soon!

Trello does not yet offer to sort lists by Start Date. This should be recognized as a mistake and be fixed. Hopefully this is something they just overlooked in the rollout and will fix shortly.

I'm also noting the UI for editing the Start Date is different than for Due Dates in inexplicable, counter-intuitive and nonsensical ways. For example, the Due Date windows shows the value both in a calendar view and also in Date and Time fields. The Start Date only uses the calendar view. They are both date fields and they should work the same way.

Michael Pryor
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
February 16, 2021

Sorting by Start Date - I'll add as a feature request.

Adding Time to Start Date I'll add as well, but product decision was to not add this.  This thread is super long and pretty old (and forum software doesn't deal with long posts well)... I'd be happy to discuss in a new topic if you want to add one if you find other things too.

Jason Qin February 16, 2021

Will start dates show up on the calendar power-up as well? Doing so would make them much more useful.

Jeff Bean February 16, 2021

Thanks, @Michael Pryor . Appreciate the response.

Without being able to sort by Start Date, for those of us still in the free version, there is no systemic way to manipulate cards by Start Dates.  The only use to be made of them is for me to look at each card's start date and then manually sort or move them. There is no automation whatsoever that I can see. That's a shame.

I understand there may be some automation using Start Dates in the Calendar and Timeline Views available in Business Class. But I'm not there yet.

The one function needed before I moved our company team to Trello was Start Dates. I had hoped to evaluate it in my own personal boards over the long term (not just the short-term trial period that's offered). But instead it appears I would have to engage in a separate evaluation process that I just can't prioritize now.

I hope you can get to your development team my feedback. By failing to provide for a sort by Start Date function, they have placed a significant hurdle in ramping-up our team to a Business Class subscription.

1 vote
Cecil D_Costa December 14, 2020

Even though it seems like Trello and Atlassian don't care about this thread... +1 for the date span feature ... common get this in your next spring backlog guys !

1 vote
r.llenes July 2, 2020

Why is this not a thing yet?

1 vote
Daniel Castro July 18, 2019

July 2019. Nothing yet. Trello, c'mon...

1 vote
Matthew N
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June 14, 2017

Hey Michele

You can add start and end dates with the Custom Fields Power-Up for Trello: https://blog.trello.com/trello-custom-fields but those won't integrate as dates within your calendar. There's currently not a way to do that, only a due date.

You could intrgrate a gantt chart to track start and end dates: https://blog.trello.com/automate-gantt-chart-project-roadmap-elegantt-trello

Michele Bennett Walton June 20, 2017

Thanks, Matthew! I forgot to respond to your message, but I did immediately check out and install the Custom Fields Power-Upu you suggested. Appreciate it!

Chris Crummey June 6, 2018

I am blown away that we can't get a full time span in the calendar. That is not acceptable for a calendar!!!!! Any thoughts to do this via API's, some custom development work?

Kelsey Peake February 3, 2022

Anyone know if this is still the case? 

Michael Pryor
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
February 24, 2022

Trello has start dates and due dates now.  This thread is pretty old and doesn’t reflect current Trello (some of this is six years old but I guess it comes up in google during searches). My suggestion is to ask a new question because I’m not sure what you are asking if it still is the case. 

0 votes
Jacob Bryant January 7, 2022

I'm still having this issue, can't believe this simple requirement isn't met.

0 votes
Jason Qin February 16, 2021

I got an official reply from Trello. 

The Start Date feature is available to all accounts regardless of plan type, but your board will need to be part of a Business Class team to use the start date cards with 'Timeline View' and 'Calendar View'.

Susan McCarthy February 16, 2021

I did see that you could get these useful features by paying for Trello. As a microbusiness (I am the "I in Team") and someone new to Trello, I'm not certain that I'm ready to invest in using this product.

0 votes
Susan McCarthy February 16, 2021

My odd solution to having cards show up on the calendar while I'm working on a project is to list the due date as the start date. For the due date, I list the next day I plan on working on the task on the card. So, if I'm going to next work on a project on Friday the 26th, I put a due date of the 26th on card. This way the card shows up within Home as "up next" and I know that I need to work on this task during the day.

Since the free version doesn't allow you to attach due dates to items on the checklist or show both the start and due dates on the calendar power-up, this is my way of getting around these constraints. 

I can still see my due date (which shows up as the start date). Each time I work on a project, I change the due date to the next time I plan on working on the it. I do this so I get a prompt each day that I need to work on a project. And since the card shows the start date (really my due date), I stay on track with what I need to get done each day. 

Jeff Bean February 16, 2021

@Susan McCarthy that's exactly what I've been doing. And it's got serious problems: by repurposing Due Dates as fake start dates, my system can't be trusted for *real* due dates, and that information has to be stored somewhere else (or worse, remembered). It also falsely suggests there is only *one* day in which the work can be done, which for my work is usually not true.

It's a serious limitation to have a personal information manager which I know is giving me false and unreliable information that can't be trusted. That's why I've been waiting (and agitating!) for true Start Dates.

The importance in a system having both Start Dates and Due Dates was well-established decades ago in David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system. I don't know why personal information platform designers were so adamant in ignoring it. 

So very glad to see Start Dates!

Susan McCarthy February 16, 2021

@Jeff Bean I've just started using Trello so I haven't hit any snafus with listing a due date as the start date. (Obviously I was hoping that I could see the time span between true start and true due date, which is how I ended up here.)

I have a bunch of "small" projects that I'm working on and daily changing the due date to the next day I need to work on the project will tell me what I need to work on for current day. It's not ideal as I can't look two or three days in advance and know everything that I need to do on those days. 

If Trello doesn't help me track what I want it to in the way I need it to, I'll go back to pen and paper. 

Jeff Bean February 16, 2021

@Susan McCarthy Yes, that's very similar to what I do and need. You don't want projects cluttering up your mind and workspace when they're not ready to be worked on, and you need to have them in your view before they're due. I've made-do, as  you have, by jerry-rigging Due Dates, by a system of labels and lists. But it's all been sub-optimal workarounds. It's why Start Dates have been necessary. 

My projects aren't complex per se, but they are very numerous and diverse, and there's no way I could even think of going back to pen and paper.

I've been using Trello just personally, and when they work through the Start Date issues (like implementing the ability to sort Lists by it) I should be well on my way to implementing this across our team. I recall that the features of the Business Class would be needed for that. I'm hoping Trello sorts these issues out soon so I can start paying them cash money!

0 votes
WG Trello Admin January 28, 2021

Looks like you can now add a start date as an option within the due date field. This does integrate with the new calendar view which is great, but I don't think the field is available in butler yet.

Trello start date.jpg

Gareth Hill January 29, 2021

I'm not seeing this option. Is it only available in the Business Class version  ?

Deleted user February 4, 2021

I'm not seeing this option. I want to have multiple start/due date and times but I don't find it.

Jeff Bean February 4, 2021

Not showing for me either. My Change Due Date screen doesn't look anything like the screenshot @WG Trello Admin shows and certainly doesn't include a Start Date or an "Add Start Date" link. That's my experience on both the Windows and the iPhone apps. Can anyone explain what's going on? Some limited-release? A Beta?

WG Trello Admin February 4, 2021

We are currently on the Business Class 14 day trial, not sure if this functionality is directly related to that as I didn't look for start dates before we upgraded. we also use custom fields for adding additional date options. https://help.trello.com/article/1067-using-the-custom-fields-power-up

WG Trello Admin February 4, 2021

Just heard from Trello.

"The 'Start Date' feature was only recently released, and we're working on building more support for it (i.e. Butler support). With that, right now, there is no variable for this field and it is currently only available to Business Class users."

Jeff Bean February 5, 2021

@WG Trello Admin Thank you for letting us know what Trello is doing. (Too bad they didn't see fit to let us know directly.) I won't be upgrading now; I will wait to hear more about it before doing so.

Jason Qin February 15, 2021

@WG Trello Admin I am on the Free plan. I also seem to have gotten the start date feature, but it looks a bit different from yours.

 Screenshot 2021-02-15 211743.png

Jeff Bean February 15, 2021

@Jason Qin thanks, I see it now, too. I'm on the Free plan as well. It's showing in my Windows app (Version 2.11.10), in the web version (Chrome Windows), but not on my iPhone (Version 2021.2.3).

I'm pleased to see that the Start Date shows on the card. That was one of the problems with the workaround using a custom field to jam a start date.

This looks good already. Looking forward to seeing it on the iPhone and putting it through its paces!

0 votes
Jens-Hendrik Jacobs December 3, 2020

I am also on board with this, the only thing that prevents me from using Asana at the moment is, that they do not have an offline solution. However, the chance, that I will leave Trello sooner or later simply for the lack of this one but essential feature, is pretty high...

0 votes
Bruce Toombs November 18, 2020

Hello!

I'm new to Trello (and loving it, incidentally), and for meetings or tasks that must be handled over several days, the best I have been able to do is create cards for each day of the meeting or conference so that they'll appear on the calendar and always appear on my "today" list. The only problem is that this means a long list of cards in the 'coming up' or 'this week' lists, which just feels like clutter. The solution of a 'start date' would really help, as would a visible date range. 

... And intuitively, this stuff just doesn't feel like a really hard thing to add, but then I'm not a programmer, so I'm not going to judge. 

0 votes
Greg Dougherty November 7, 2020

I can’t believe these comments span all the way back to 2017 and this functionality still hasn’t been added.. I’m a paying customer and have been adding the Start Date to be titles, but a “Start Date” option would be so helpful!

0 votes
john-darryl.pelingo October 26, 2020

+1 to this. Hopefully, they implement it at some point. :) 

0 votes
Jeff Bean May 7, 2020

I need start dates. Not just in calendar view, but on the card as displayed in lists as well. A custom field is not a solution because it doesn't show unless you open the card.

This has been the single most influential factor that keeps me from using Trello in more contexts, from implementing it in my teams, and from choosing a paid subscription. (I'm paying a subscription to Smartsheet mainly because Trello lacks this functionality.)

In short, if Trello had start dates, I'd pay money for it.

Start dates are an essential function of any GTD system.

Personally, I'm positively gobsmacked that so many people still choose to organize their work according to "when I've got to get it done" instead of "how soon can I do it?" I can promise you I would not hire such a person. (Hmmm, should add that to my interview checklist ...)

rayhinton May 7, 2020

FYI Jeff, if you're really trying to jam this workflow into Trello (as I am), you can choose to display a Custom Field on the "front" of a card (Board menu > Power-Ups > Custom Fields > Edit Power-Up Settings > [your field] > check "Show field on front of card"). Although, this solution is imperfect in its own way, because native Due Dates show on the left of the card, and the custom field Start Date shows on the right of the card (not chronological order). Of course I can read the labels for each date, but from a UI perspective, I constantly expect the earlier date (Start Date) to be on the left.

In the end, I appreciate the flexibility of the Power-up system, but I am also annoyed when it is proposed as the only solution to simple productivity features like... dates for when things happen. Sometimes it feels like being told to program my own application.

0 votes
Gareth Hill May 7, 2020

Just started using Trello and likewise am disappointed that you can't set a start date that shows up in the Calendar. It is so important to be able to see a full picture of what's going on at any point in time

0 votes
miles.stevens2 January 19, 2020

So disappointed that this hasn't been addressed.

0 votes
Culverin January 16, 2020

I would agree.
Having native support for a start/end date would help make timelining much better.

0 votes
Dylan_Kennard September 30, 2019

Cronofy is not a solution to this problem. A simple "Start Date" is the only solution.

0 votes
Deleted user September 17, 2019

Any update regarding this?
Being able to set start and due date and it being visible in the calendar power up would really help.

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