Trello Excel 2-way Sync

How to Sync Trello Cards with Microsoft Excel

Published in Use cases on , last updated .

These step-by-step instructions will show you how to sync Trello with Microsoft Excel through Unito in order to connect cards with spreadsheet rows. It can save you hours of manual input for any type of report you have in mind. The specific use case we’ll demonstrate in this article will show you how to review tasks assigned to freelance contractors, but it can be easily modified to suit any use case.

All you have to keep in mind as you go is that Unito will place the details of your Trello cards into specific columns in your spreadsheet. So you need to decide in advance which columns should contain your card titles, descriptions, lists, labels, due dates, etc. All of these are considered fields in Unito that can be synced to any column you choose.

Syncing Trello cards to Microsoft Excel with Unito enables you to automatically:

  • Populate a spreadsheet with Trello card details, including: title, member, label, due date, status, description footer, checklists, and custom fields.
  • Create new cards in Trello based on Microsoft Excel rows with specified fields.

Put another way, your rows will become Trello cards and your columns will become fields.

Here’s what our synced spreadsheet looks like with data populated from our demo Trello cards:

Why connect Trello to Excel with Unito?

Primarily, this automated two-way flow will help you save time that would otherwise be spent copy-pasting key details, facts and figures to or from your spreadsheet. Beyond that the use cases depend on your role and specific reporting needs. Here are just a few examples:

  • Review project progress from your spreadsheet
  • Build a report for stakeholders
  • Share Trello updates with other teams using a simplified, yet flexible Excel spreadsheet

By connecting Trello and Microsoft Excel with Unito, you also eliminate the need to jump back and forth between tabs to double-check your data since everything will be automatically kept up-to-date in real-time. As your team updates cards in Trello, your spreadsheet will update itself through Unito.

Before we sync Trello cards to Microsoft Excel:

  • Ensure your business has an account in both Trello and Excel with the right permissions to access and modify data in each tool.
  • Read Unito’s integration overviews of Trello and Microsoft Excel to better understand the capabilities and limitations of each.
  • Install the Unito add-in for Microsoft Excel (explained below).
  • Create a header row in your spreadsheet with titles you’ll link to Trello card fields. If you need help getting started, you can use this free Microsoft Excel template we’ve designed.

Add Unito to your Trello Board (optional)

This step is for users who wish to add Unito as a Power-Up to an existing Trello board. You can skip this process if you’ve already installed Unito or you’ve logged in directly to our app. Otherwise, click here if you need help adding Unito as a Trello Power-Up. Just don’t forget to come back to this guide!

Add a header row to your spreadsheet

Unito syncs fields between Trello and Microsoft Excel based on the first row of your spreadsheet. A simple way to do this is to name each column after the fields you’re syncing from Trello (e.g., title, member, description, etc.).

Here is an example of a header row. In the next step, we’ll show you how to use the Unito add-in to label the first and last columns of your sheet: “UnitoID” and “Last Modified”. The Unito extension does this automatically, or you can create the titles manually.

How to install the Unito add-in to Microsoft Excel

From your spreadsheet, click Insert at the top of the window and select Add-ins on the right-hand side.

Select store, then search for Unito for Excel and click add. Follow the on-screen instructions to add Unito to your Microsoft workspace. 

Microsoft Excel Unito Add-In
Make sure this step is completed before you build an Excel flow with Unito.

Once the add-in is installed, click Insert the two columns in this sheet. Alternatively, you can create these two columns manually. All that matters is that the first column is titled UnitoID and the last column is called Last Modified. These columns can be hidden afterwards if you wish.

Step 1. Connect Trello and Microsoft Excel with Unito

  1. Now you can either go to the Unito App and click +Create Flow or continue from your Trello workspace once you’ve added the app.
  2. Click Start Here to connect your tools.
  3. Select +Add a tool to this flow in either column and connect Trello. Then click +Choose account to specify the Trello account you want to use.
  4. Pick the Trello board you want to connect to Unito.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to connect Microsoft Excel.
  6. Click Confirm.
Connect Trello and Microsoft Excel with Unito

When you’re ready, click Confirm.

Step 2: Set a flow direction between Trello and Excel

Flow direction determines how new cards or rows are created by Unito. So with a two-way sync at this stage, adding new rows to Excel will create a matching Trello card, and vice versa. Since we’re building a report in a spreadsheet, we’ll choose a one-way sync from Trello to Excel.

Set a Flow Direction between Trello and Microsoft Excel

Click Confirm when you’ve chosen a flow direction. 

Step 3: Set rules to filter data between Trello and Excel

This step determines how rows and/or cards are created by Unito. If you don’t set any rules, then all cards in your chosen Trello board will appear in Excel. If that’s what you want, simply hit confirm and proceed.

Otherwise, select Add a new trigger to establish rules for each directional flow.

For this demo, we’ve told the system to create a matching row in Microsoft Excel for every card in our Trello board with a label matching the names of our freelancers.

Set up rules to filter data between Trello and Excel
In this case, only Trello cards from our chosen board with at least one label for Bruce, Cheryl, and Glenda will turn into Excel rows.

NOTE: These triggers are intended to help you keep only the most relevant information in sync to avoid oversharing unnecessary details. There can be a lot of variability here that will depend on your particular needs and tool setup. By customizing your Trello labels as we’ve done in the example above, you can be even more precise about what kind of data is shared with Excel.

Find out more about setting rules.

Step 4: Customize field mappings to sync rows between Trello and Excel

Fields represent the details of your spreadsheet rows and Trello cards. Since you’re sending field data to a spreadsheet, you’ll only be able to sync numbers or text fields.

First, you’ll be asked whether you want to set up your field mappings from scratch or let Unito do this automatically. Since we have to name all of our fields in Excel you’ll need to choose the manual option.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Asana-master-project-mappings-method-selection.png
Your fields will be automatically mapped for two-way updates, but you can adjust them as needed. With a one-way sync between fields, only the destination field will update automatically when you make changes in the source field.

Unito requires headings in the first row of your sheet in order to sync properly with any other tool. From there, you can tell the system which column headers to sync with fields in Trello. The first field you’ll have to map is the Trello card title. In our demo, we’ve given one of our columns the same name to keep things simple. Click Select a field for each tool, and find the appropriate field to map. See below for an example:

Choose field mappings between Trello cards and Excel
In this case our labels represent the names of our freelancers, so we’ve created an “assigned to” column in Excel and synced them. The board name, “freelance assignments” will appear as a “category” in Excel in case we wish to sync other boards later. Our Trello lists are structured by role, which we can use as a “status” in Excel if we’re producing content: copy, design, web implementation, etc.

Click Confirm when you’re satisfied with your field mappings to proceed.

Find out more about setting field mappings.

Step 5. Save, close, and launch your connected Trello-Excel Integration!

And that’s it! Follow the remaining instructions to complete your flow and it should start syncing momentarily. Congratulations!

If you’ve followed the steps above, your flow will now create a row in Microsoft Excel whenever a new card is added in Trello based on the rules we set in Step 3. Here’s what our synced Excel spreadsheet looked like next to our Trello board:

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know.

What’s next?

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