How to Sync Trello and Microsoft Outlook Calendar with Automated 2-Way Updates

Published in Unito on 03/02/2024, last updated 14/06/2024.

Unito’s automated two-way workflow allows users to sync Trello and Microsoft Outlook calendar events or contacts. This can be extremely useful for anyone who wants to: turn Trello cards into highly visible calendar events, quickly review Trello due dates from another app, keep others in the loop on important dates and more. The integration described in this article has two goals: create a 2-way sync between Trello and Outlook, then set rules to maintain real-time updates when changes are made in either one. So let’s get into it and walk you through how to connect Trello and Microsoft Outlook with automated 2-way updates through Unito.

This guide will show you how to:

Create new Outlook calendar events automatically from Trello based on rules you set in Unito.
Keep events and Trello cards synced in real-time so any changes you make in Outlook or Trello will appear in the other.

Why sync Trello cards to Microsoft Outlook calendar events?

Syncing Trello cards from your board to a shared Microsoft Outlook Calendar makes sense for any Trello user. This use case can offer some inspiration, but it is far from the only way to use this workflow.

Automate your marketing or product roadmap to success

So let’s imagine there’s a product or marketing team in Trello planning their roadmap with a board that includes all the conferences (and dates) they’ll be sponsoring and/or attending in 2023. Each event could have its own card with a list of attendees, details, dates and times, etc. They could build a flow with Unito to sync any cards related to the conference schedule into a shared Microsoft Outlook Calendar. If any changes are made to a card or related event, the other will be automatically updated. That’s the power of learning how to sync Trello with Microsoft Outlook Calendar.

Get everyone on the same page on any device

Syncing Trello cards with Microsoft Outlook Calendar can be a valuable resource to streamline team productivity and ensure everyone is on the same page. Every use case is different, so we’ll do our best to provide inspiration.

Let’s say your marketing or product team is charting out a roadmap with a Trello board that includes launch dates, conferences, important internal or external events, and anything else time-sensitive. Each event might have its own card that includes essentials such as the names of attendees, details, dates, times and other relevant information.

By setting up a flow with Unito to sync any related cards in their board to a shared Microsoft Outlook Calendar, all stakeholders will always have access to real-time updates and changes made to any event or card related to the plan.

Synchronize data across calendars, cards and time zones

This way teams can save time by avoiding manual updates and guarantee accuracy for each conference or activity planned ahead of time. Further advantages include being able to synchronize events across multiple calendars quickly, improve visibility over tasks and objectives easily through the sharing of information, and create an efficient communication channel for teams in different time zones or locations. Ultimately this integration makes collaboration efforts more manageable and less prone to errors.

Here's what it looks like when Trello cards are synced to Outlook events with Unito — Here’s what it looks like when Trello cards are synced to Outlook events with Unito

What do I need to do before logging in to Unito?

If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to add Unito as a Power-Up to an existing Trello board. Trello users can access Unito directly from their boards, or you may enjoy more flexibility from Unito’s standalone experience.
Log in to Outlook and set up a calendar for this integration. You can also create and apply labels to your cards at Trello.com to easily identify the ones you’d like to sync.
You can review our integration documentation for Microsoft Outlook and Trello to get a better understanding of what you can -and can’t– do with this 2-way flow.

Last but not least, when you sync work with Unito, you’re actually matching up fields in Trello and Outlook so that Unito knows to turn your Trello card title into the name of your event in Outlook and so on. With that in mind, you may want to give your cards specific additional information that would be handy to keep in your calendar.

Step 1. Connect Trello and Microsoft Outlook to Unito

Navigate to the Unito App and select +Create Flow. On the next screen, select Start Here to connect Trello and Microsoft Outlook Calendar. Choose the accounts you want connected to Unito. You’ll need to specify which account, board, and calendar you wish to sync. Here’s what a completed connection looks like at this stage:

When you’re ready, hit Confirm.

Step 2. Set a flow direction from Trello to Microsoft Outlook

Here you get to pick how Unito will create new work items (e.g., Trello cards or Outlook events). Later, we’ll decide which details to keep in a live 2-way sync.

For now, just pick a source and destination tool if you only want to create work items in one direction (e.g., from Trello to Outlook. The example below would tell Unito that cards in Trello can create Outlook events, but not vice versa:

If you choose a 2-way flow here, then new calendar events would also create Trello cards.

Step 3. Set rules to create Outlook events based on specific Trello Cards

Here, we can tell Unito which Trello cards should become events using triggers to set conditions for when that should happen. If you don’t specify triggers, then all cards from your board will turn into calendar events. An easy way to be precise is to sync cards with specific labels or from specific lists.

If you’re looking for inspiration, we have a guide on how to make the most out of your Trello labels.

When you’re ready, select Add a new trigger to to sync those labeled cards with your specified Microsoft Outlook Calendar.

The above rules have told Unito to create events for each Trello card in the list “Share to Calendar” and assign them the colour purple.

Find out more about setting rules.

Step 4. Set field mappings between Trello cards and Outlook events

Here you’ll map, or match up, fields between Trello cards and Outlook events. Fields are the details of your work items: title, description, assignee, etc. You can choose your mappings from scratch or let Unito do it automatically.

Select Auto Map here to begin with a prebuilt template that can be modified. — We recommend always selecting “Map automatically” since it provides you with the beginnings of a template which you can then add to and modify.

Click + Add mapping to sync additional fields, then Select a field for each tool and find the field you wish to map.

Here’s a simple set of mappings that sync the due date, description and title together. The last two field mappings tell Unito to add links from Trello to Outlook and Outlook to Trello in the description footers for each card and event.

Any field with a gear, or cog, icon can be further customized to map single-select or multi-select values. In the example below, we synced Trello labels with color categories in Outlook:

NOTE: Unito identifies members and guests by their email address. In order for guests to sync properly, the contact and their email address must appear in, or be added to, both Trello and Microsoft Outlook Calendar.

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

Find out more about field mappings.

Step 5. Save, close, and launch your Trello Microsoft Outlook flow!

And that’s it! You’ve just completed a flow between Trello and Microsoft Outlook. Congratulations!

If you’ve followed the steps above, your flow will now:

Create a new Microsoft Outlook Calendar event in purple based on specific Trello cards.
Sync dates, times, guests, card/event titles and descriptions between your tools and keep them up to date in real-time.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know. Our live support team is ready to jump in and lend a hand to make sure your flows always function as intended.