Import CSV and Excel into Trello
Kanban Importer is a free Trello Power-Up that builds a kanban board from a file. It reads CSV, TSV, Excel, OpenDocument and JSON, creates one card per row with lists, labels, members, dates and checklists, and sets up Backlog, Ready, In Progress, In Review and Done when those columns are missing.
What it does
You have the work written down already. A backlog in Excel, a sprint plan in Google Sheets, an export from Jira or GitHub, a CSV somebody emailed you. Kanban Importer turns that file into a Trello board: one card per row, in the right list, with the labels, dates, members and checklists already attached.
No copy and paste, and no retyping a hundred cards.
It reads the file you already have
| Format | Notes |
|---|---|
| CSV and TSV | Comma, semicolon, tab or pipe, detected for you |
Excel .xlsx, .xlsm | Read directly, no conversion step |
OpenDocument .ods | What LibreOffice and Google Sheets export |
| JSON | Arrays, wrapped objects, and newline delimited dumps |
| Trello board export | Rebuild or clone a board, checklists included |
| Jira and GitHub exports | Nested fields expand so you can map them |
Excel dates arrive as real dates rather than five digit serial numbers. Quotes, commas and line breaks inside a cell survive, and so does a gap in the middle of a row.
Built for agile teams
Tick one box and it creates Backlog, Ready, In Progress, In Review and Done, in that order, before importing anything. An empty board becomes a working kanban board in a single pass.
User stories go in the card title, acceptance criteria become a checklist, the definition of done sits in the description, and work type and priority ride along as labels.
Nothing happens until you say so
Column matching is automatic and every choice is a dropdown you can change. The preview shows the first rows exactly as they will be created, along with which lists and labels are about to be added and which rows will be skipped. During the run, every row reports success, skip or failure, and failed rows download as a small file so you can fix those and re-import only them.
Your file never leaves your browser
The file is read in your browser and the cards go straight to Trello. Nothing is uploaded to us, and there is no server of ours holding your data, because there is no server of ours at all. Read the privacy policy for the detail.
What it costs
Nothing. It is free to use, on as many boards as you like.
Get started
Read the getting started guide, or browse the help centre for supported formats, column matching, agile setup and troubleshooting.
Questions or a format you wish it read? Email james@njligames.com.
Also see custom app development if you need a tool like this built for your own workflow.