Need Help With Automations: Copying items from checklist to a separate card

[Grace Vargas]

Hello everyone! We're lost on how to do this.

So we want to put automation on the four lists in our boards.

Task List -> In Progress -> Pending for Approval -> Done

What we wanna do is whenever an item is checked from the checklist inside the first a card in the Task List, we want it to have a copy in a card inside the In Progress list. Same from In Progress to Pending for Approval and to Done.

What we're seeing in the automation is to have a copy of the entire checklist but we only want items from checklist whenever done to have a copy in the In Progress.

Your expertise on this is highly appreciated. Looking forward for a resolution on this. Thank you!

[Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows · Accepted solution]

@Grace Vargas try something like this:

when an item is checked in a card in list "Tasks List", find a card titled "X" in list "In Progress", and add item "{checklistitemname}" to checklist "Tasks"

This will trigger when any checklist item is checked, so you might want to filter this further depending on your specific workflow.

Additionally, if the "destination" card that is getting the checklist item automatically added has the exact same name as the "origin" card, you could create a much more generic rule:

when an item is checked in a card, find a card titled "{cardname}", and add item "{checklistitemname}" to checklist "Tasks"

Happy to help further if you're able to share more details on your workflow.

[Grace Vargas]

Hi @Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows

I appreciate your help here. I think this is what we need and assume this is under the Checklist trigger. However, I couldn't find the the automation which says "when an item is checked in a card...".  It just say "when an item is checked in a checklist named..." and no other option to choose from. Let me know if I'm missing something here. Thank you so much.

[John D.]

I didn't notice your reply before I submitted mine, but I eventually came to the same conclusion that the {checklistitemname} is a needed element since we don't know what "tasks" we'll see on a checklist.

[Hannah Humbert - Simpla Workflows]

@Grace Vargas you can just select the "+" to add the trigger without specifying the checklist ☺️

[John D. · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Please let me know if I am understanding correctly, but I believe what you want is for a checklist item on a card in your "Task List" to communicate to another checklist on a different card on your "Progress List" when it is checked? Is that right?

I think the Cascade feature of automation is what you need, but there are some limitations. You will have to know what the item and checklist are called in order to search for it on another card on another list with a different checklist. The screenshot below would show you what that automation looks like.

And when you check "Number 1" that item will also be checked on the other checklist.

If you would like it to be more freeform so you wouldn't have to know what the items are called ahead of time you could turn any completed items from you Task List checklist into individual cards that could have as much (or as little) detail as you wanted in the Progress List with the following automation.

If I am way off base just let me know, but if either of the above suggestions seem helpful I am glad to chat more about it.

John D.

[Grace Vargas]

Hi John! Thanks for this and I really appreciate your response. We tried this and it's almost, but just missing a bit more of what we want to achieve.

What we want is once we create a checklist from one of the cards in our Task List and check each item one by one, those items will be automatically be copied to the next list which is the In Progress list (without the check in the items, just the items list). This is without typing manually all those same items from the Task list to the In Progress list. 

After checking the item from the checklist in the In Progress list card, it will then automatically be listed or copied to the next list which is the For Approval list. Then once approved and checked, it will automatically then be copied in the Done list.

We don't want another card to be created for each items, but just be copied on the card in the next list we have.

I am not sure if this is possible,  but your response helps us learn another automation here. Thank you so much and looking forward for any additional help on what we want to achieve.

[John D.]

Good morning,

I am glad it helped a little, but let's see if we can do better. First some questions.

So, do you know what the Checklist will be called in the cards for the Task, Progress, and Done lists? Do you know what the items will be called?

Depending on the answers to the above questions, I think I have it mostly figured out. Your automation will have to use a variable. So, the screenshot below represents my test board for your issue.


So, the automation you will use will look like this.

The trigger is watching for checked items on a defined checklist name. When it sees that any item has been checked on that list, then it looks for the card in your In-Progress list with a defined name. Then, using the {checklistitemname} variable, it just adds the previously checked item into the new checklist.
Here is what it looks like in the cards.

It looks like this accomplishes what you wanted, but in this example defining certain names is crucial. There may be a way around that though, I just didn't know if you would always have that info ahead of time or not.


Let me know what you think or if anything is unclear!

Thanks,
John D.

[Grace Vargas]

Hi @John D_ this is very helpful. The checklists name and items vary, depending on the tasks assigned to us.

What we want is to monitor the output per week. So the Task List will have the week card name (April 22-26 for example), then inside that card we would like to have 3 different checklist (Admin, Creatives and Sale). The tasks vary again depending on what is needed to be done.

With that said, I would like to clarify this... you mean in every automation, we need to specific the tasks name?

What we'd like to achieve if possible is to just automatically copy the checklist from the Task List week card to the In Progress List week card without having the specific name in the automation, if only possible. 

[John D.]

Ok, that helps. So, you can generalize the Checklist/Card name by just having the trigger activate for any item checked in a list like so.

But from there I think the command for the checked item needs to know where to go and needs some specifics.
Will the card always have something in the title, like April 22-26 Admin Progress? If so, you could use a wildcard variable that will look for words in a title. I have no experience with that though, and not much time to look into it today unfortunately.

Just to be sure I understand, the checklist, item, and card name could be anything?

[Grace Vargas]

Yes, correct. It could be anything. Thank you so much, this is really a big help. We are just starting out using Trello and I'm amazed what it can do.