Migrate from BigTime to Trello

BigTime Projects are the central organizing entity for tasks, time entries, and expenses. We map Projects to Trello Boards, preserving the project name as the board name and project status (Active, On Hold, Archived) as board state. BigTime's project-level Custom Fields require the Custom Fields Power-Up on each board; we install and configure it before card import. Archived BigTime projects migrate as closed Trello boards. If the customer used BigTime's project start/end dates, we record them in the Board description since Trello Cards lack native date ranges without the Calendar Power-Up.

BigTime Staff records (name, email, role, department, billable rate) map to Trello Workspace Members. We resolve by email match and invite any unprovisioned members to the Workspace. Billable rate values are stored as a Card Custom Field or Board description note since Trello has no native rate management. Inactive BigTime staff migrate as Workspace members with no board access pending the customer's confirmation of which historical assignees need visibility.

BigTime Clients represent billing entities with no native Trello equivalent. During scoping, the customer chooses between two approaches: creating a client identifier label on each Board (Label color per client) or maintaining a separate 'Client Reference' board with a card per client storing contact details and billing terms as Custom Fields. We apply the chosen strategy consistently across all boards during migration.

BigTime Tasks at the parent level become Trello Cards. BigTime child tasks become Checklist items under the parent Card, preserving task name, assigned staff member (as Card member), due date (as Card due date), and billable flag (as a Custom Field on the Card). Any BigTime tasks nested beyond two levels are flagged for manual flattening during the reconciliation phase since Trello has no nested-card concept.

BigTime time entries (hours, billable flag, date, staff member, project-task association) have no native Trello object. During scoping, the customer chooses: store total hours as a number Custom Field on the Card (summed per task), maintain a separate time-entry CSV reference file attached to each Board, or accept that time tracking moves to a Trello Power-Up or separate tool. Already-invoiced time entries are migrated as locked reference records with a status flag.

BigTime Expenses (vendor, amount, date, expense code, receipt attachment) map to Card-level Custom Fields in Trello where the customer wants expense data visible on the task card. Receipt file references migrate as Trello card attachments (up to 10 MB per file). BigTime expense codes become Custom Field dropdown options on the relevant boards. Customers who need expense approval workflows should be aware these do not migrate and require rebuild in Trello Butler or a separate approval tool.

BigTime Invoices and invoice drafts have no Trello equivalent. We export all invoice records—status, line items, amounts, client association, and date—as a structured CSV file and any associated PDF documents as file attachments on a dedicated 'Invoice Archive' Board. Already-sent or paid invoices are exported with closed status. Draft invoices are flagged with a draft indicator in the export. Customers should plan to manage ongoing billing in QuickBooks, another accounting tool, or a dedicated invoicing integration with Trello.

BigTime Project-level Custom Fields (text, number, dropdown, checkbox, date, monetary, URL) map to equivalent Custom Fields Power-Up field types on each Trello Board. We install the Custom Fields Power-Up on all target boards before card migration begins. Multi-select dropdown values in BigTime map to multi-select Custom Fields in Trello. Field labels and all populated values are preserved; empty fields are omitted.

BigTime staff assignments to projects and scheduled hours per staff member map to Trello Card Members (the assignee field) and a scheduled-hours Custom Field on the Card. Capacity planning and utilization dashboards available in BigTime Premier have no Trello equivalent; we flag this as a reporting gap in the migration handoff document.

BigTime's Scheduled vs. Actual report captures planned hours, cost, and revenue against tracked values with a variance calculation. Trello has no financial reporting layer. We export the most recent Scheduled vs. Actual snapshot per Project as a CSV attached to the corresponding Board and note this as a reporting gap requiring a BI tool or spreadsheet for ongoing variance tracking.

File attachments on BigTime Projects and Expenses migrate as Trello Card attachments. We download files from BigTime via the REST API and upload them to the mapped Card via the Trello API. Trello enforces a 10 MB per-file attachment limit; files exceeding this are stored as external links with the original URL preserved in a Custom Field note. Filename, uploader, and upload timestamp are preserved in the Trello attachment metadata.

BigTime Tags applied to Projects and Expenses map directly to Trello Board Labels, with label colors preserved where the source system stores them. Multi-value tags (multiple tags on one record) become multiple Label assignments on the same Card. We create Label names and colors based on the BigTime tag vocabulary during board setup.