On Monday, Marta, owner of a six-person agency, counts 94 cards across four Trello boards and a separate spreadsheet with deadlines. She wants to switch tools, but the thought of rewriting everything makes her close the laptop. Only once she picks out 23 current tasks does she see a plan for one evening.
How do you move tasks from Trello if there's no import?
You move tasks from Trello or a spreadsheet into Task Manager by hand. You don't need to rewrite the whole board, though: first you pick out the matters the team is still working on.
Marta separates 23 current tasks from 31 old cards, 20 short notes, and 20 duplicates and finished matters. This is how Marta's cards happen to split, not a rule for every company. Without this sorting, the new programme would start out with the same backlog that made work harder in the old one.
When you set up a task, you enter a required subject. You add a description, priority, deadline, and assigned people if they're needed. So you write up the decisions needed for further work, not every old comment. If you're still deciding whether to switch tools, see the comparison of Task Manager and Trello.
At your request, the AI Assistant can open a form with some fields pre-filled, for example for "Add a task called X with a deadline of Y". It doesn't read the board or spreadsheet for you and doesn't move several cards at once. You can also go through the whole process without AI.
First, pick out what's still alive
Choose to move matters with an upcoming deadline, someone waiting on the result, or an assignee still in place. If an item meets none of these conditions, leave it in the old tool for reference.
On Tuesday, Marta comes across a card called "Ask about the logo". On its own it doesn't need a separate task: the question becomes a point within the work on the client's website. She sorts the remaining 19 short notes the same way. She doesn't rewrite closed matters - if someone asks about an old decision in a month's time, she'll check the old board.
Treat the spreadsheet just as sparingly. The "what" column suggests the task's subject, "who" points to the assigned people, and "by when" gives the deadline. From the remaining columns, pick out only the information the assignee can't move forward without, and add it to the description. The spreadsheet itself can stay as a record of earlier work.
First build spaces, not a copy of the old board
To start, treat one old board as a candidate for one Workspace. A Workspace is a dedicated space that groups tasks and chats for a project, team, or topic; it isn't meant to mirror every column standing for a stage of work.
Marta starts with four spaces: "ABC Clients", "New website", "Marketing", and "Office matters". This number matches how her work is currently split, but it doesn't have to match yours. If several short projects are handled by the same people, you might first decide whether they need separate spaces.
To set up a Workspace, click "+" next to "Workspaces" in the left-hand column, type a name, and choose "Save". The button is visible to a global administrator or someone with the "Can add Workspaces" permission. The "All" item shows tasks and chats from every space together, so splitting them up doesn't cut you off from the overall picture of the work. It's covered in more detail in the guide to workspaces.
Deleting a Workspace is irreversible: it requires retyping its exact name and removes its tasks, chats, messages, and attached files. So don't set up a trial space thinking you'll easily delete it later; check the name and scope before saving.
Only then invite people to the right spaces
First invite a person to Task Manager, then assign them to the right Workspace. Users are added by the administrator in the "Users" window, opened via the people-group icon next to the gear icon; the invited person gets an email and sets their own password.
On the space's card, open the ⋮ menu, choose "Edit workspace", and in the "Assign users" section select the people and their permissions: administering the space, adding tasks, or adding chats. A global administrator sees and manages all spaces, while a regular user only sees the ones they've been assigned to.
On Wednesday, Marta checks the list of six people. She gives the accountant access to "Office matters", not to client projects. If you're not sure how to split up access, read the overview of roles and permissions in Task Manager.
When someone leaves the team, the administrator can deactivate their account instead of deleting it: the data stays, and the licence seat is freed up.
Write up tasks with a deadline and a responsible person
Choose a Workspace in the left-hand column and click “+ Add task” in the middle column. Enter the subject, then, if needed, a description, priority, due date and assigned people; finally, click “Save”.
On Thursday, Marta rewrites the card about mock-ups: its title becomes the subject, the agreed points go into the description, the due date goes into the “Due date” field, and Magda becomes the assigned person. She gives the urgent matter a high priority. Before moving to the next card, she checks that Magda will know what result she needs to deliver.
Don't carry over the old stage columns as separate Workspaces. Task Manager has four task states: no status, in progress, done and cancelled. Leave a new task with no status, or set it to “In progress” if work has already started; leave completed matters in the previous tool's archive. You can change the status later using the icon on the list, without opening the task.
Enter the due time only when it genuinely matters. A task with a date but no time stays marked as “due today” for the whole of that day, and only becomes overdue the next day.
Turn short notes into bullet points, not separate tasks
Rewrite checklists and small steps as a to-do list in the description of a larger task. In the “Description” field, choose “To-do list”; you can paste several lines at once, and each one becomes a separate item. List markers such as “- [ ]”, “*” or “1.” are removed from the item text.
Marta doesn't create 20 tasks titled “Ask about the logo” or “Check the domain”. She splits these notes between three tasks where an answer will actually be needed. This way, the due date and assigned person relate to the task to be done, while the list describes the steps along the way. You'll find more examples in the article on the checklist in a task.
You tick off the list saved in the description directly on the task card, without opening the edit view. All participants see the same state; the progress bar shows, for example, “2 of 3 done”, and a mini avatar next to a ticked item shows who checked it off. You add a new item with the “+ Add item” button.
The screenshot below shows the list in a message, not in a task description. Once you save the list in a description, it will appear on the task card and work in a similar way.
Want columns? The Board shows spaces, not stages
The Task Manager Board shows Workspaces as columns with the Favourites, Tasks and Chats sections. If you're looking for a view similar to the old board, you'll find cards side by side here, but the columns mean something different: each one represents a space, not a stage of progress.
Open the Board from the view menu in the top bar. You can move columns around to set the order of spaces, and move cards to arrange items within them. Dropping a card in the Favourites section adds it to your favourites. Clicking a card opens its thread alongside.
On Friday, Marta puts “New website” ahead of “Marketing”, because the team has a closer deadline on the website. She doesn't create “Waiting” and “Done” columns for this: she reads the current stage from the task's status. If you're wondering which view to keep for your team's everyday use, compare the Board and the task list.
For the first week, the old tool is used only for reference
After the move, keep your old cards handy, but create new matters in Task Manager from now on. This way, the history stays accessible, and the team doesn't have to guess which of the two places the next task will appear in.
On Monday, someone asks Marta about an arrangement that isn't on the new list. Marta checks the old board, looks at the context, and, if the matter is still open, creates a task in the relevant Workspace. She doesn't try to recreate the whole old conversation. The change history in the new thread starts from the moment the task was created: from then on, system messages record, among other things, changes to status, people and due date.
After a week, review what you've rewritten. Above the list, the “On time”, “Due today” and “Overdue” tiles act both as counters and as filters. Search at the top of the middle column covers the task subject and description, chat names and message content. If an item turns out to be unnecessary, you can choose “Archive” from its card's ⋮ menu; it will disappear from the main list. The rest of the work rhythm is described in the plan for your first week with Task Manager.
How much time should you set aside for such an evening?
In Marta's example, the plan for one evening takes 115 minutes, just under two hours. This is an estimate for her six people and 23 selected tasks, not a promise of how long it will take for every board. The scenes from Monday to Friday show separate examples of Marta's decisions, not the schedule for this one evening.
| Stage | What Marta does | Estimated time |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing current matters | Reviews 94 cards and a spreadsheet | 30 minutes |
| Workspaces | Sets up four spaces | 10 minutes |
| People and permissions | Invites six people and checks access | 20 minutes |
| Tasks | Rewrites 23 current matters | 40 minutes |
| To-do lists | Pastes small steps into descriptions | 15 minutes |
| Total | 115 minutes |
Treat the table as a work plan, not a stopwatch. If descriptions need tidying up, or if you have to re-establish who's responsible for each card, the evening will take longer. If you have fewer active matters, don't set aside time for copying over closed history.
Tomorrow, open your board or spreadsheet and mark only the items with an upcoming due date, someone waiting for a result, or an assignee still attached to them. That's your first list to move over. Before you start rewriting it on your own server, try setting up a Workspace and a task in the Demo.
Frequently asked questions
How to move tasks from Trello to Task Manager without an import?
Pick your current matters and set them up manually in the right Task Manager Workspaces. The programme has no import from Trello or a spreadsheet, so leave closed cards in the old tool for reference.
What to do with old, closed cards?
Leave them in the previous tool for reference. Move to the new programme only the tasks that still have work to do, a deadline, or someone waiting on the result.
How to map Trello columns onto Task Manager?
Don't map stage columns onto Workspaces: on the Task Manager Board, columns represent spaces. You mark work progress with a task status: no status, in progress, done, or cancelled.
What to do with checklists from cards and points from Excel?
Paste the small steps as a to-do list in the relevant task's description. You can paste several lines at once, and the team can tick off finished points without opening the task for editing.
Will the AI Assistant copy tasks from Trello for me?
No, the AI Assistant doesn't move the whole board or spreadsheet. At your request, it can open a single task form with some fields pre-filled; Task Manager also works without AI.
Sources
The Task Manager Team - we write about teamwork, AI in business and keeping tasks organised, using examples from Task Manager, software installed on your own server. Task Manager has been developed by Blue Creation Group (Piotr Łącz) since 2013 and is used by organisations including Neonet, the Military University of Technology and Polpharma - read customer reviews. We check our articles against the user guide and the latest version of the software.
