Trello Reporting: Everything you Need to Know

Project management reporting is essential because it provides valuable insights and data that can help teams and organizations make informed decisions about their projects. If you are using Trello as your project management tool and you are looking for a way to create faster and simpler reports, then this article is for you. 

Trello is a web-based project management tool that allows individuals and teams to organize and manage tasks, projects, and workflows. The tool uses a system of boards, lists, and cards to organize tasks. 
While Trello is great for visualizing and managing projects, generating reports from Trello can be challenging because of its limited reporting features and lack of customization. However, in this article, we will show you every way you can perform Trello reporting effectively. Let’s get started!

Trello reporting options

There are different Trello reporting options to choose from, varying from native features to power-ups and third-party solutions. There are even data integration solutions that allow you to create self-updating Trello reports in spreadsheets. 

 Here are the different reporting options with their pros and cons:

• Built-in reporting features – These features are easy to use and can help you create basic reports for time tracking and project management. However, these are only available for Premium Trello users. Also, unlike the other options, native functionality is limited. For example, it doesn’t allow you to conduct detailed analytics or customize your reports. 
• Trello Reporting power-ups – You have a lot of power-ups to choose from and many of them are free. They allow you to significantly enhance native functionality by adding features you need. However, some power-ups may not be reliable or may experience downtime, which can impact productivity and project progress.
• Third-party solutions – These solutions can help you automate data collection and create complex reports. This method might be a better option if you need to extract, transform, and load data from multiple sources, not just Trello. But you need to take into account that you have to pay a subscription fee. 

Let’s deep dive into each Trello reporting option!

Built-in reporting features in Trello 

Trello’s Dashboards feature is an easy-to-use, built-in option for Premium users. On your workspace in Trello, you will find a dropdown menu next to Board where you can select a different view. 

With the Dashboard view, team leaders can easily visualize data within seconds. To make it easier for managers to evaluate the workload of their team, Trello comes with four charts based on card counts per filter: 

• Cards per list 
• Cards per member
• Cards per label 
• Cards per due date status

Premium users can customize the information that appears on the dashboard by simply removing or adding charts. Also, for better visualization, you can choose to see the data in a bar graph or pie chart. 

While this is the most-advanced built-in feature for reporting for Trello, you can also choose a different feature such as Calendar view. Trello’s calendar view allows you to see all tasks and deadlines in a calendar format, making it easy to identify upcoming due dates and potential scheduling conflicts.

It’s important to note that these features are only available if you have a Premium account. If you are looking for a free option, let’s move to the next option for reporting in Trello.

Trello reporting power-ups 

One of the great things about Trello is that it comes with additional apps or tools, known as power-ups. There are many Trello reporting power-ups designed to help you keep track of your objectives and measure the performance of your team. The power-ups can be found at the top right on your workspace in Trello. 

Here are the top 3 best Trello power-ups for reporting and analytics.

1. OKR Cards by Screenful 

The OKR Cards Power-Up by Screenful is a free tool that helps track objectives and key results. It’s a simple board utility that runs entirely within the Trello UI. 

Some of the key features of OKR Cards include:

• Creating objectives and key results
• Adding tasks to key results across all boards
• Effortlessly adjusting the progress of key results
• Monitoring progress across multiple boards to easily track the results of your work.

2. Time-tracking power-up by Everhour

Everhour provides a time-tracking power-up for Trello Cards that is both 100% free and lightweight. This easy-to-set-up power-up helps you discover how much time is spent per card. In the card details, you can track time using a timer or log time manually for any date. 

This power-up also comes with a “Project report and export to CSV” feature that’s easy to set up. To view a complete record of time entries, select the “Time” button from the menu. You can filter the results by date or member and include notes if desired. Additionally, you can export the data in a CSV file.

With the Time-tracking power-up by Everhour you can: 

• Track the time spent on each task
• Create project reports
• Export to CSV for shareable reports

3. Blue Dasher

Blue Dasher is a free power-up for Trello that provides additional project management functionality for Trello Boards. It features a customizable project management dashboard and a pre-built workflow that helps track milestones, blocking tasks, and dependent tasks being blocked.

With Blue Dasher you can: 

• View your Trello cards through a project dashboard overlay
• Filter by both milestones and blocking cards to gain valuable insights
• Customize columns and filter options to suit your needs
• Print the dashboard or export it as a PDF for easy sharing and reference

Of course, apart from these power-ups, you can also choose from a wide range of Trello reporting free and paid power-ups. Looking for a way to create more customizable and easy-to-visualize reports? Here comes the third Trello reporting option.

Trello reporting tools for automated reporting

If you are looking for a way to create automated reports, then you can choose a third-party solution that comes with more versatile functionality. In general, automated reporting tools come with many benefits. They allow you to eliminate human errors, save a significant amount of time, and make your reporting process smooth and effortless thanks to building self-updating reports and visualizations. 

1. Coupler.io

Coupler.io is a data automation and analytics platform designed to help you collect and analyze data faster and more effectively. Thanks to its ETL capacity, you can extract, transform, and load data into a spreadsheet or database and visualize it if you’d like. 

With this solution, you can easily export your data to Excel, Google Sheets, or BigQuery on a schedule. Using Coupler.io, you can extract data from over 60 business apps, such as Trello, Asana, or Airtable, and blend it with your data from other apps in a single spreadsheet, if needed. 

Coupler.io’s automatic data refresh feature allows you to create self-updating custom reports and dashboards that refresh at your preferred intervals. Additionally, if you load data from Trello to BigQuery, you can perform advanced analysis leveraging the platform’s ML capabilities.
Here’s an example of a self-updating dashboard that monitors the Customer Success team performance. This dashboard is created in Looker Studio and is connected to a Coupler.io-powered spreadsheet with data that refreshes automatically. Soon, Coupler.io will add Looker Studio as a new data destination, and this will allow users to transfer data to Looker Studio directly.

2. Bridge24

Bridge24 is a reporting and exporting tool that can be used to create complex Trello reports. With Bridge24, users can present data in different views such as a grid or calendar.

Also, this reporting tool can automatically create popular charts including cards by the board, member, status type, or list. Bridge24 also enables easy export of data in Excel or CSV format for backup or presentation purposes.

3. Hevo

Another option that allows you to extract data from Trello is Hevo. With Hevo, your Trello reporting is easy to automate. This is a no-code solution that can be used by people without a technical background. Hevo allows you to load data from Trello to any data warehouse. You can export data from Trello to your preferred destination and then create reports in Looker Studio or other business data visualization tools. 

Example of the Automated reporting in Trello with Coupler.io

Not sure how to do automated reporting in Trello? It’s really easy and you don’t need any technical knowledge for this. We’re going to give you a step-by-step tutorial on how to automatically export data on a schedule with a Trello – Google Sheets integration. 

Step 1. First, if you don’t have an account, sign up to create one. Then, click on Add importer. 

Step 2. Select Trello as your Source and Google Sheets as your Destination. Click on Proceed. Alternatively, you can also connect to Excel or BigQuery.

Step 3. Now it’s time to configure the data source. Connect to your Trello account and select the board that you want Coupler.io to export data from. Provide the URL of the board you need (if you are not sure where to get it, please see these instructions). 

Step 4. Also, choose one of the data entities you want to export from Trello.

In the next step, you can also select the start date for your report.

Step 5. Moving on to the Destination. Select the Account, Document, and Sheet where you want your data to be imported. Also, you can create a new sheet directly in Coupler.io. Just write a new name and Coupler.io will create the sheet for you.

Step 6. Select if you want to Replace or Append the imported data.

Step 7. Lastly, select whether you want to schedule automatic updates. You can update the data on a preferred schedule (at intervals varying from 15 minutes to 1 month). Also, select the days of the week when you would want Coupler.io to extract data, the time preference, and the timezone. Then, click on Save and Run.

Here’s an example of data transferred from Trello to Google Sheets automatically. Now this spreadsheet can be used to build a self-updating report or dashboard.

Depending on your selections, data from Trello will be updated automatically on a regular basis so that you can see if the tasks were completed, if they moved from one list to another, or when there was activity in the card.

You can also connect your self-updating spreadsheet to Looker Studio or PowerBI to build advanced visualizations with auto-refreshing data.

Types of Trello reports to track progress and performance

Every team and every project is different. That’s why there are various ways in which you can report in Trello. Here are some of the most common Trello reports that will help you track productivity and improve time management. 

Trello Time Reporting

This reporting type refers to the practice of tracking the time spent on tasks and activities within Trello. This allows users to gain insights into how time is being allocated across different projects and tasks, and can help with project planning, team management, and productivity analysis.

Trello Project Reporting

Project reporting can help teams identify areas that require attention, measure progress against goals, and communicate project status to stakeholders.

Trello Board Reporting

Board reporting can help teams track the progress of each card, identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement, and communicate board status to stakeholders.

Trello Reporting Analytics

This refers to the use of data analysis tools and techniques to generate insights and identify patterns in Trello data. By analyzing Trello data, users can gain insights into how their teams are performing, identify trends over time, and make data-driven decisions. Trello reporting analytics is applicable to all types of Trello reports.

Best practices for Trello reporting

Consistent use of labels. Using labels consistently across all cards and boards can help with filtering and sorting data for reporting purposes. Make sure everyone on the team is on the same page about the meaning and use of different labels.

Regularly update card information. Make sure card information, such as due dates, checklists, and attachments, is regularly updated to ensure accuracy in reporting.

Utilize power-ups or apps. Trello power-ups can extend Trello’s reporting capabilities, so take advantage of them. Research and experiment with different power-ups to find ones that work best for your reporting needs.

Automate the process. By using tools like Coupler.io, you can automate reporting in Trello. Instead of creating weekly/monthly reports manually, you can use Coupler.io to automatically export data to your preferred destination file. With the scheduled updates, your reports can always be up to date.

Analyze data regularly. Analyzing data on an ongoing basis can help teams identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. Use Trello reporting tools to extract these insights and take action based on them.

Reporting for Trello: keep track of your performance

Trello reporting provides valuable insights into team performance and project progress. By utilizing Trello’s reporting features and power-ups, teams can easily track time, analyze project data, and generate custom reports to keep stakeholders informed. 

Following best practices such as using consistent labels, regularly updating card information, and automating reporting can ensure accuracy and clarity in reports. By regularly analyzing data, teams can identify trends and areas for improvement, leading to better project outcomes.