Rules show activity for user that created the rule - can this be changed?

[Sandra Walsh]

Hello all, 

I have multiple rules running across multiple boards. Each time a rule is executed, the Activity is added to the card under my name. 

Is it possible to set the current user as the person running the rule so that the Activity is attributed to them instead?

Thank you,

Sandra

[Katrin Anger · Accepted solution]

@Sandra Walsh 

As far as I understood how Butler was set up ... no!

It's a matter of who created the rule.

Is it the problem that you don't want all these notifications in your account, or would you like to know who is executing the commands?

[Sandra Walsh]

Hello Katrin -

Thank you for your reply. I would like the Activity log to show the user that is executing the command. I do not get notifications when the rules are run, so that is not an issue. 

[Katrin Anger]

@Sandra Walsh 

Hi Sandra, I understand. And I find this request totally comprehensible. After all, that's the way most software is tracking today which user is doing what.

I would suggest you set up a feature request for that. (Open Butler, click on the 3 dots in top right corner, click account).

[Sandra Walsh]

Thank you Katrin - I will do that :)

[Paul Martissa]

Sandra - I too have the same issue/need. Have you heard any feedback from support on the feature request?

[Andra Babigian]

I'm also curious on this. I would like for it to state Butler instead of my name as when my team looks at the activity they think I'm doing something and they think they need to reply to me :( wastes a lot of time.

[Esme Crutchley]

Hi @Andra Babigian 

As you set up the Butler rule, Butler acts as you, so whatever you've told Butler to do, it will always run as if it was you. Therefore, any rule that you set up to run, will show as coming from you, same as if anyone else in your team sets up a Butler rule, it will act as them. It would be great if there was some way for others to instantly see whether this action was taken by Butler or someone else, but unfortunately, there isn't. 

You can get around this, by creating a dummy email and Trello account just for Butler and adding it to your boards and creating rules only within that account, so that everyone will know what you've done and what Butler has actually done. You could call it Andra's Butler or something similar.

However, if you have Business Class and you add this new account to more than 1 board, it will be charged as a multi-board guest, at the full price. Which is why it's not really a viable solution. If it's added to more than 1 board it's charged at (currently) $119.99 a year, so I guess it's a question of whether the time you're wasting answering team members that contact you about something you didn't actually do, is worth that much, or if you're wasting $119.99's worth of time per year when you could be earning that money from clients.

If you're going to go down this route, I would suggest that you add that account to the Team, therefore giving more Butler quota to the whole team, rather than as a multi-board guest, because you won't get any extra Butler commands or operations, so it would make the most sense to add it to the Team and get the extra. Team members and multi-board guests are charged the same, so if you're going to do it and pay for it, you might as well get the capabilities! 

Esme :)

[Andra Babigian]

Thank you!

[Sandra Walsh]

This seems like a complicated and costly workaround when it would make more sense to attribute all Butler rules to Butler !!

[Esme Crutchley]

The reason that Butler acts as 'you' is because a lot of people can have a lot of rules all on the same board, if it was 'Butler' every time, no one would have a clue who's rules were doing what, and if something went wrong, it would be really difficult to track down whos rule did what when.

If you're a client on a board with a company, would you want to see that "Butler" did this that and the other, and know that the person who's supposed to be dealing with your case hasn't done anything in the last week, because he's automated everything, or would you want the visual reassurance that x person had done things (even if he hasn't, because it's all automated)?

[Sandra Walsh]

Good point! We use Trello internally only, so I had not thought about how this would look to a client ;)

[Esme Crutchley]

I'm the same, I use Trello only with my husband and mother. Mother doesn't have a clue how to use Butler (and she's iffy on Trello tbh!) so I know that anything she does is actually her (which is helpful!), and I've set up all Hubster's rules because he wouldn't have a clue either!

As a client on a couple of boards that aren't mine, I know most of the things that I see are Butler doing its thing in the background. But I think that probably other people wouldn't know this. It's only because I use a LOT of Butler rules myself, that I can see some of the sequences that happen, and in the timeframe that they happen (which wouldn't be possible if someone was physically doing it), that I know it's not a human doing it!

:)