Content:
1. Introduction to the "Kanbanize for Excel" Add-in
2. Getting Started
3. Creating New Work Items with the Add-in
4. How to Create Subtasks
5. How to Update your Work Items’ Properties with the Add-in
6. How to Delete Work Items using the Add-in
7. How to Use the Add-in to Export, Edit, and Generate Reports
1. Introduction to the "Kanbanize for Excel" Add-in
With our Add-in for Excel, users can easily:
- Export board data (both cards and initiatives)
- Update board data (both cards and initiatives)
- Create new cards and initiatives
- Delete cards and initiatives
- Export Kanbanize reports in Excel
Disclaimer: Kanbanize recommends that you perform a test with the Add-in functionality on a dedicated test Board to ensure correct use and to minimize the risk of unexpected results.
2. Getting Started
Open a new or existing Excel workbook in your browser. Select the Office Ads-ins option from the Insert Window.
Search for Kanbanize in the add-ins store and add it to your Excel.
You will now see the Kanbanize Add-in in the Home window. Click on it to log into your Kanbanize Account.
Enter your Kanbanize credentials as follows:
- Email Address of your user
- Password
- Account Name (the subdomain of your Kanbanize account)
Note: if your company is using Single Sign-On (SSO) for login and authentication to Kanbanize, you would need to use your API key to log in via the add-in.
It can be retrieved by navigating to My Account -> API in Kanbanize.
Once logged in, you will be shown the following menu:
- There are 3 different windows: Import/Export, Reports, and Settings.
- In the Import/Export window, you can select the desired board from your Kanbanize Account.
Note: Only the boards you are assigned to will be visualized. - In case you have been assigned to a new board or a board’s name has been changed, you can refresh the list of boards by clicking this button.
- From this menu, you can control what data you want to be exported from the board. Once you click on it, you will be shown a dropdown of all Regular and Custom fields that are available on the selected board.
- Once you have configured the above configurations, you have to select Extract to get the information into the Excel Workbook.
Note: there is a limit of 5000 cards that you can extract. - The Save button sends any changes you make to the Excel workbook to be applied in Kanbanize.
Note: there is a limit of 500 cards when updating cards in bulk.
You will see a window detailing the changes you have made that you will have to approve before importing those changes into Kanbanize.
From the Reports window, you can export any saved reports (from the Reporting Functionality) in your Kanbanize Account into Excel.
- Select the desired Report from the ones configured in your Kanbanize account.
- If you create a new Report in Kanbanize that you wish to extract into Excel, refresh the list of reports, so it shows up in the drop-down list.
- After selecting the desired report, you need to click on Extract to get the data in Excel.
Note: a new sheet will be created for each new report exported from Kanbanize.
From the Setting window, you can toggle the following settings for the Kanbanize Add-in.
- Date format - this format can be configured to be different than the one used in Kanbanize and will apply to all Date fields that are exported into the Excel workbook.
- Allow delete items - this configuration adds a new column next to the cards that are displayed in the Excel workbook, using which you can delete cards. You cannot delete cards using the Add-in unless this setting is toggled on.
- Allow delete links - when toggled on, this configuration allows you to delete the links between the cards on your Kanbanize Board using the Add-in. You cannot delete links using the Add-in unless this setting is toggled on.
- Automatically re-extract on save - this configuration, when toggled on, automatically updates the data in Excel after a Save.
3. Creating New Work Items with the Add-in
A user can create a new item/multiple items by entering the card values in the empty rows below the respective column headers in the Excel workbook. You can leave the ID field empty, and one will be assigned to the card once it is imported.
When importing empty/blank values, the system will get the default ones.
To create the new items in Kanbanize, you need to click the Save button of the Add-in, and the cards will get created on the Board.
Note: When you create new items, you can also link them to existing cards in the system, you can enter the new card’s parent, children, etc.
4. How to Create Subtasks?
In order to create a subtask, you should have the following fields extracted via the add-in:
Parents, Subtasks, and Work Item.
Once you have extracted those, you can create a subtask by clicking on the Work Item cell of the respective row and choosing 'Subtask'.
By default, the add-on will suggest a parent for this subtask and will automatically populate the Parents cell - this would always be the first card/initiative on top of the row, where the subtask is being created.
If the previous row is not yet populated with an already created card, the cell will be populated with the value of the row for that card.
The 'Parents' cell can be modified in order to associate the subtask with another card/initiative.
5. How to Update Your Work Items’ Properties with the Add-in
You can update the cards and initiatives fields that you have extracted with the Add-in.
To update your cards or initiatives, first, you have to export the board data along with the properties you want to change. Then input the new values in the cells to replace the old values and click the Save button in the Add-ins menu.
6. How to Delete Work Items using the Add-in
Important: Ensure you have enabled deleting cards from the “Settings” window in the Add-in menu before attempting to delete a card.
After you enable this setting, you will see a new column in the Excel Workbook with the heading “Delete Item,” which will have a field with the options “No” and “ Yes”. By default, the value of this field is “No,” and you need to change it for each work item you would like to delete to “Yes”.
To finalize deleting the cards, you have to save your changes. Before saving these changes, you will be prompted with a window displaying how many cards you have deleted/updated/created. Check over it before confirming your save to prevent accidentally deleting an unintended work item.
7. How to Use the Add-in to Export, Edit, and Generate Reports
In order to export a report using the Add-in, make sure the report was created using the Reporting functionality. After configuring your desired report data in Kanbanize, you can use the Dropdown in the Add-in menu to select it. (if it is a newly created report, you may need to refresh the results for the report to become visible in the dropdown)
After selecting the desired report, you need to click on Extract to get the data in Excel. From here, you can manipulate the data in Excel in any way you need.
Every time you re-extract the data from Kanbanize, your configured manipulations will be automatically populated with the new data from Kanbanize. This can be useful for configuring Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Yearly reports that can be continuously updated without needing reconfiguration.