How to export planner status reports in excel?

Copper Contributor

I have to share project status reports and would like if plan and task status reports can be generated in excel format. 

An integration with excel online would be great.

 

Regards.

39 Replies
You can try this outlook add-in which allows you to export / import tasks to planner using excel.
http://apps4.pro/planner.aspx


I'm already using this tool, and I have to say that's it's great! Would be nice if Planner incorporate all the features that has this tool.

When this comes out of beta, I'm hoping we'll start to see a lot more capability around Planner along with the ability for us to create our own things around it:

 

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/docs/api-reference/beta/resources/task

I don't want (to purchase) an additional tool. Would be nice if this will be a feature in Planner from Microsoft. 

This tool is absolutely awesome -- thanks for the link.

 

Fills all the gaps in one shot (Planner manager)

You can export Planner to Excel using Flow.   In Flow, select Planner, then list tasks.  Then "Apply to each" value, then Excel: insert row.   

Hi Rob can you provide more detail of the actions or triggers used?


@Rob Andren wrote:

You can export Planner to Excel using Flow.   In Flow, select Planner, then list tasks.  Then "Apply to each" value, then Excel: insert row.   


Thank you Rob, can you provide more details in the actions or triggers used in the steps of the Flow?

Rob,

 

Thanks for suggesting using Flow.

But Flow does not read Planner properties like Labels, AssignedTo, Tasklist and BucketId and PlanID are internal IDs that are useless if you don't know where to look for the actual names.

Again, thanks to Agile Product Development!

Yes, I would really like to see this option. It is vital to bring printouts to meetings and send reports to managers.

I'm a newbie to Flow so there might be a smarter trigger, but just to get an export to work, I started with schedule --> recurrence as a trigger.  Then:
- Connector: Planner 
- Action: List Tasks 
- Then add a "New Step" --> "More" --> "Add an Apply to Each" 
- Action: Choose Excel connector, with the action "Insert Row" 
Configure Excel file as needed with columns for whatever dynamic data for each task on the plan.  It would be nice to have more choices there, but there is enough there for a useful export for me.

Very nice indeed! Thank you very much for this idea! GREAT STUFF! Dunno if Flow or Excel or Power BI is awsome! :D
Dear Rob,
Does it work for the existing Planner tasks or only for the newly added tasks?

Thanks!

Hi,

 

Could you help me with a few details on how you did this?

Hi Rob,

 

I keep getting an error from the 'Apply to each' part of my flow.  It says 'An action failed. No dependent actions succeeded'.  What have I done wrong?


@Rob Andren wrote:

I'm a newbie to Flow so there might be a smarter trigger, but just to get an export to work, I started with schedule --> recurrence as a trigger.  Then:
- Connector: Planner 
- Action: List Tasks 
- Then add a "New Step" --> "More" --> "Add an Apply to Each" 
- Action: Choose Excel connector, with the action "Insert Row" 
Configure Excel file as needed with columns for whatever dynamic data for each task on the plan.  It would be nice to have more choices there, but there is enough there for a useful export for me.


Planner Flow.PNG

What's not mentioned is that you have to create the Excel file first so that Flow has a place to put the information. You can create as many columns as you wish. The limitation is the information that Planner is able to push. The only useful ones are Title, Due Date, and Percent Complete. I really wish there were more options here and specifically the Assignee! Anyone have workarounds?

ExcelFile.JPG

Rachel, the problem that you had is you haven't selected information to be added to the specific columns. If you click on Column one in your image you will be able to select several outputs from Flow/Planner. See my flow below!

 Flow.JPG

 

The Flow initiates and runs for 8 lines, but then fails with the following error:

 

InvalidTemplate. Unable to process template language expressions in action 'Add_a_row_into_a_table' inputs at line '1' and column '1785': 'The template language expression 'items('Apply_to_each')?['completedBy']['user']['displayName']' cannot be evaluated because property 'user' cannot be selected. Please see https://aka.ms/logicexpressions for usage details.'.

 

A bug in Apply_to_each?   Any ideas?

This works well for exports, however, is there any way to get 

a) the comments concatenated so that all the details comments are in a single line cell with separators like attachments tab

b) if in the data it detects the separator it displays or inserts a line break to display the segment on a new line in the same cell?

Thanks @Deon Burgess, I am happy to hear this and it is possible to do as you have requested. I have DM you more details regarding this. 

Hello.

Curious if this can be done for every plan with in a Team?

 

I have an IT Projects Team, all channels have a Planner plan attached. Would like to do reporting on all of them instead of having do the flow for every plan.. And hopefuly Planner will soon be ale to present more data.

 

/Jan