July 19, 2019
Trello first appeared in 2011, quickly establishing itself as the organizational tool. Its simplicity belies its usefulness and adaptability – indeed, Trello has found success in small teams and large organisations alike. There seems to be no scenario in which the tool can’t be utilised effectively – some families even started using it to organise their free time. However, because Trello is meant to be as simple as possible, some features which we would normally expect simply aren’t there out of the box, at least not at first. In this post we’re going to take a look at some of the most popular Trello reporting tools around.
The first Trello reporting tool we’re going to take a look at is Ollert. Ollert is as simple as tools like this get – connect your account, select the board you’d like to generate a report for, and there you go. What it lacks in bells and whistles it makes up for in its simplicity. With a single click you’re instantly presented with your standard cumulative flow diagram, burn-up and burn-down charts, as well as a brief summary of the board: which lists have the most cards, how much time is spent on given lists, et cetera.
If you’re just looking for a high-level overview of your board and aren’t concerned with the fine details, Ollert will do the job just fine. As far as Trello reporting tools go, you can’t get much simpler than that – for some, that may be exactly what they need. As for us, we’d like to see some more customisation options. Which brings us to our next offering…
If Ollert was all too simple, Screenful is its polar opposite. It’s not exactly a Trello-specific tool – Screenful pulls data from a multitude of sources, including Jira, GitHub and GitLab, to name a few. We’re not going to look at all of those integrations, however – that would probably warrant an article of its own.
In a nutshell, Screenful is a real-time reporting dashboard – it pulls data from wherever your team is and presents charts, statistics, and other metrics in a sleek, easy-to-read UI. “Maximize the effect”, its website blurb says, “by installing a large visible display”. The app was clearly designed to be visible at all times and is a perfect fit for those project managers who like to constantly be in the loop.
As far as Trello reporting tools go, it’s hard to find a solution more feature-packed than Screenful. Aside from providing the usual suspects (CFDs, burn charts, et cetera), it allows users to customise their views, define sprints, milestones, and much more. Their dashboard view is also available as a Trello Power-Up, although it is just that – the dashboard view in a small panel within your Trello view, which, admittedly, feels a little bit awkward.
Corello is a much more relaxed alternative to other Trello reporting tools on this list. The app’s presentation is simple and to-the-point; it doesn’t concern itself with being anything other than functional and readable. For some, it may feel quaint; others may find this to be a refreshing alternative to flashy web apps of 2019.
As for its feature set, Corello gives users a lot of customisation options. Once you create your Trello dashboard and link it to a board, you can select which statistics you’re interested in tracking. Curiously, there is no option to simply add every metric to the dashboard at once – prepare for a lot of clicking.
Features such as CFDs and burn-down reports are here, as expected; there are also some functions which make Corello especially attractive to agile teams, such as release forecasts, which are calculated based on current performance.
There are also some small touches which we appreciate, such as weekly summaries sent out by email or posted to a Slack board. Overall, it’s a solid choice.
Let’s face it – you just can’t beat the DIY approach in some cases. If you want a truly personalised Trello reporting tool, Reddit user u/Joseph5234 recommends using Trello’s own Butler, an automation Power-Up.
Just like Trello, Butler is deceptively simple. Beneath its friendly natural language user interface (think Mad Libs) lies a wealth of possibilities. Trello’s blog post introducing Butler describes a couple of simple use cases – you could, for instance, create a “Rule” stating that whenever a card is moved into the “Done” list, all of its checklist items are marked as complete, the user is removed from the card and the due date is marked as done.
So, how do you use Butler for reporting? Simply create a “weekly report” board (or daily, monthly, et cetera) and tell Butler to copy every completed card from other boards into a new list in your report. Want to be warned of every overdue card? Butler can do that. Tasks need verification or testing? Butler can generate cards and lists and automatically assign the relevant team members. The proverbial sky is the limit, as long as you’ve got an hour or two to spare.
Of course, we couldn’t help but mention our own solution. Trello integration is something near and dear to our hearts; as such, you can use Timenotes not only as a standalone application, but also to track and manage your Trello boards.
The reporting feature in Timenotes allows you to generate CSV, PDF and XLS files containing all the relevant metrics and browse the user and product timesheets . Whether you’re interested in a high-level overview of all your ongoing projects, or you want to go into minute detail on each task, we have you covered. The Clients feature allows you to quickly determine who demands the most attention from your team, while our Users report can quickly tell you who’s burning the midnight oil, and who’s more loose about reporting their time.
If you haven’t yet tried out Timenotes time tracking, consider giving it a go - it’s free for up to five users (and $35 for anything over that. Even if you employ thousands).