Migrate from Trello
A board becomes a project.
Spodus recognises a Trello board export and maps the card name, members and both dates, with the board name becoming the project.
- trello-board.csv260 rows · 5 columnsLooks like a Trello export1Upload
- Card NameNameMembersAssigneeDue DateDue dateLabelsIgnored2Map
- Preview
Nothing is written yet
Rows read260DuplicatesSkippedUnreadableKept as textImport tasks3Preview
What this move actually is.
Four facts that decide most of the work.
- The file
- One CSV per board, exported from the board itself. This is a Trello Premium feature; a free board exports JSON, and the Spodus importer does not read JSON, so there is no route in without the CSV.
- The preset
- Spodus ships a Trello preset built from real board exports published in public repositories. It binds Card Name, Members, Due Date, Start Date and Board Name, and leaves the rest visible.
- The target
- Tasks. The board name is the same on every row, so one board arrives as one project with its cards under it, which is what moving off Trello usually wants.
- The direction
- One way, once. There is no sync between the two, so a board moves on the day you move it and Trello becomes a read-only archive.
Column by column.
What each Trello column becomes, and what the importer leaves alone.
Two things about the values that are true of a correct import. Members holds Trello usernames rather than real names, so anyone who is not in your Spodus workspace under that spelling is kept as typed and counted in the preview, which doubles as a list of people to invite. And Trello's dates are instants rather than calendar days, so a card due late in the UTC evening lands on the next day for anyone east of UTC. That is inherent to what Trello stores, not something the importer can fix.
What does not come across.
Everything below is either not in the export or has no field here to land in.
Card descriptions and comments
The description column has nowhere to land, because Spodus tasks have no description field. Comments are not in the export at all. On a board where the card body is the work, this is the whole conversation.
Lists, as statuses
A Trello list is the closest thing on the board to a status, and it is also free text. One real export has lists called Future Projects/Ideas and To Be Assigned/Started, which are not statuses in any vocabulary, so the column stays visible and you decide what to do with it.
Checklists
The export carries counts, not items. Checklist contents do not come across, and Spodus subtasks are not filled by the import either.
Attachments and covers
A CSV holds text. Files, links and cover images stay on the Trello card.
Labels and Power-Ups
Labels have no destination unless you create a select or multi-select field and map them into it. Power-Ups and Butler automations have no equivalent definition to import; Spodus has its own automations.
Board members and permissions
Nobody is invited by an import. Add your people in Settings, where per-object access is also set.
How to do it.
Steps two and three are the ones people skip and then repeat.
- Check you can export CSV at allCSV export is a Trello Premium feature. A free board exports JSON, which the Spodus importer does not read, so on a free workspace this is the step that decides whether there is a path in.
- Decide what your lists meanIf your lists are a workflow, add a Status column to the sheet with values matching the Spodus options and map it by hand. If they are categories, they are a select field you create first. This is a five-minute decision that is very tedious to reverse.
- Turn on Client projectsThe board name lands in the task's Project field, which points at Client projects. Turn the object on in Settings if your workspace does not have it. Creating the project record first is optional, since links resolve by name.
- Export one board and upload itOpen Tasks, press Import, upload the CSV. The Map step should announce a Trello export and bind five columns. Look at what is under Ignored columns before you go on, because that list is what you are leaving behind.
- Read the preview, then importWatch the count of cells it could not read: that is usually Trello usernames that match nobody in your workspace yet. Skip duplicates is on by default and automations are off by default.
- Fix the members afterwardsA username kept as typed is visible on the record and easy to correct once the person is in your workspace. Inviting your team before you import saves this step entirely.
How long it realistically takes.
Measured in the phases the work actually falls into.
- Checking your Trello plan
- 1 minute. The whole path depends on it.
- Deciding what lists become
- 15 to 30 minutes. Once for the whole workspace.
- Each board, export to imported
- 10 minutes. The simplest of the six vendors here.
- Fixing member names
- 10 to 20 minutes per board. Zero if your team is already in Spodus.
- Rebuilding views
- 1 hour. Once, not per board.
- Descriptions, checklists, attachments
- Not included. None of them has a destination here.
One board is twenty minutes. Ten boards is a morning. The part that takes real time is not the importing, it is deciding that half of those boards were archives rather than work and leaving them in Trello.
True of any import into Spodus.
The same four rules apply whichever tool you are leaving.
- It is a file, not a connection
- Spodus reads .csv and .xlsx. Not .xls, which no spreadsheet parser here can open, and not JSON. Nothing keeps two systems in step, so what you get is a copy of your data as it stood the moment you exported it.
- One file per object
- You import into an object, not into the workspace. Open Contacts and import contacts; open Deals and import deals. A vendor that keeps people, companies and deals in three exports needs three passes.
- Links are stored as names
- A deal points at an account by name, and the link resolves the moment a record with that name exists. So importing accounts before deals is a convenience rather than a rule, and a link that lands unresolved starts working when the missing record arrives.
- Nothing is written until you press Import
- The preview counts duplicates against the records already in your workspace, counts the cells it could not read, and counts the rows pointing at something that does not exist yet. All three are on screen before the write.
Do not migrate off Trello if:
- You are on a free Trello workspace. CSV export is a Premium feature and a free board exports JSON, which this importer cannot read, so there is no route in.
- The card description and its comments are the work. Neither comes across, and a board whose cards are documents will arrive as a list of titles.
- Checklists are how you track progress. The export carries counts rather than items, and nothing in the import fills a subtask.
On a paid plan, we do the move for you, free: send us your export. On Free, it is your export, your mapping and your afternoon.
Coming from something else?
The same page, for the other tools people leave behind.
Two ways
to start
Start fresh today, or bring the clients, deals and history you already have.
Start fresh
Free for up to three people.
You get every product: CRM, invoicing, support, team, chat and Spodus AI, which asks before it changes anything. Upgrade when your team grows.
Start for freeBring your data
Bring your data from the tool you use now.
Your deals arrive with their stages, owners and dates. Connect your work email, and each client's emails land on their record. On a paid plan, we'll move it all for you, free.
Import a file and see what you get.
Start today, or bring your own data to a demo and see it there.
Questions, answered
Not directly. Trello's CSV export is a Premium feature, and a free board exports JSON, which the Spodus importer does not read. The options are to upgrade Trello for the month you need the export, or to rebuild the board by hand, which for a small board is often faster than it sounds.
Because a list is whatever the board's author typed. Real exports carry lists called Future Projects/Ideas and To Be Assigned/Started, which are not statuses, so binding the column would quietly succeed on a To Do / Doing / Done board and flag every row of the others. It stays visible instead, and you map it if it means what you want it to mean.
Trello stores due dates as instants rather than calendar days, so a card due late in the UTC evening reads as the next day once it is turned into a local calendar date. That is inherent to what Trello exports. If a day matters, check those rows on the preview before importing.
They are kept exactly as typed and counted in the preview under the cells the importer could not read. Nothing is lost, and the count is a useful list of people you have not invited yet. Invite the team first and the count goes to zero.