In this article:
1. Introduction to the “Recurring Create Cards” Rule
2. How to Create the Rule?
3. How to Set Up and Enable the Rule?
4. Practical Examples for Using the ‘Recurring Create Cards’ Rule
To get a better understanding of what business rules are and how they work, please refer to our dedicated article on business rules.
1. Introduction to the “Recurring Create Cards” Rule
With the “Recurring create cards” business rule, you can set up a schedule and create new cards automatically. For example, you can configure the system to automatically create new cards with predefined parameters, every Monday at 5 p.m. This rule is very useful when you have recurring tasks in your work process.
2. How to Create the Rule?
Only users with "Account Owner" or "Manage Business Rules" privileges can create business rules.
To create a rule, go to your Administration panel at the top right of your screen, open the Business Rules tab, and select the Recurring create cards rule tab.
Note: If there is a set of already created business rules in your account, use the Add new rule button at the upper right side of the panel to create your new rule.
3. How to Set Up and Enable the Rule?
The "Recurring create cards" configuration panel has the following fields and properties:
- In the Name (1) and Description (2) fields, you can change the name of the rule and describe the scenario you will achieve with it. This way you can create an overview of your active business rules, as upon creation every automation is present in the Business Rules panel.
- You can share the rule (3) with other users (e.g. with a Workspace Manager of a board), which will grant them access to edit/disable/enable the rule.
- Business rules are a sort of "point-and-click" programming language that allows you to automate any process. Each business rule has three main properties: When (4); And (5); Then (6).
1. WHEN
Here you define a schedule for the automatic card update.
You have several options:
- Advanced schedule*
- Every day — this is selected by default for all new rules. The rule will be executed every day in the hour you specify (from the Execute at field)
- Every month — the rule will be executed every month on the day you specify.
- Every week — the rule will be executed on the weekday you select.
- Every workday — the rule will be executed every workday (Mon - Fri).
- Predefined interval — set a time interval for the execution of the rule, e.g. every 21 days.
Click on “Every day” to open the menu options.
*Working with the Advanced Schedule
When you select “Advanced schedule,” click on "Not set" to customize when your rule will trigger. This opens a panel with a standard cron generator (1) and a menu where you can build your custom cron expression (2).
The custom cron expression menu covers all options from the cron generator and a range of other scheduling scenarios. There are essentially three fields you can customize:
- Day of the month/Day of the week — you can either select a day of the month or a day of the week in your schedule. The unused field must contain a “?” symbol.
- Month — For example, “*” means the rule will trigger every month, while “1/3” means it will execute every three months, starting in January.
- Year — For example, “2024/2” means the rule will trigger every 2 years starting in 2024.
Clicking on either field will load a list of available values you can use with examples available on hover. Learn more about the advanced schedule in Businessmap.
2. AND - no filters are applicable for this rule.
3. THEN - Select the execution time and the position/details of the card to be created. You can also choose to link the newly created card to another card or initiative.
-
Execute At: Click on the time and select an hour between 00:00 and 23:00. The default timezone is the one set in your account.
Note: It is important for the execution of the rule to set up your correct time zone in My Account. - Create cards: Click on Add new action → click on Not set → Select the board (1) where the card should be created and choose its position (2) (column and swimlane) from the Board Minimap.
An empty card will open. This is the card that will be created by the business rule — enter a title (obligatory), define the card fields you want, and click on Save details.
- Link the card: You can link the created card as child/parent/predecessor/successor/relative to another card of your choice.
Click on Add new action to create extra cards and optimize the scope of the rule. You can arrange the cards that will be created in a specific sequence. To do that, simply drag and drop a card to rearrange it before or after another card.
Click on the x-sign at the top right of an action item to remove it. To enable the rule, click on the Save button in the lower right corner, or click on the x-sign in the upper right corner to cancel the rule creation.
Note: If a rule is set up to create cards in a workflow that has since been disabled, those cards will not be created, and you will receive an email notification with more details about it.
4. Practical Examples of Using the ‘Recurring Create Cards’ Rule
This rule comes in handy when the same cards need to be created at a specific recurring time. The rule eliminates the need to manually create them and makes sure they are not forgotten.
If, for example, there are daily tasks that are created each day, this can be automated using this business rule. An example scenario for this business rule would be to create a new card every day to remind a team leader that they need to go through the tasks completed by their team from the previous day and prepare an efficiency report.
Another practical example of utilizing this rule is to create a weekly report card that can be linked automatically to a bigger reports initiative.