How to export Microsoft planner tasks to Excel?

by

Teams planner challenges with data visibility

“Our team has been using Microsoft Planner for project management, but our leadership wants weekly reports with task status and assignments. Is there a way to export all our Planner tasks to Excel so we can create custom reports, share data with stakeholders who don’t use Planner, and track historical trends? We need this process to be as automated as possible since we’ll be doing this regularly.”

Why exporting planner data to Excel matters

Organizations using Microsoft Planner for task management often need to analyze data beyond Planner’s built-in charts. Exporting Planner tasks to Excel enables deeper analysis, custom reporting, and sharing with stakeholders without Microsoft 365 access. This capability bridges the gap between Planner’s task management and Excel’s robust data analysis tools. For teams tracking project timelines, resource allocation, or compliance requirements, the ability to export and analyze this data becomes essential.

Organizations using Microsoft Planner for task management often need to analyze data beyond Planner’s built-in charts. Exporting Planner tasks to Excel enables deeper analysis, custom reporting, and sharing with stakeholders without Microsoft 365 access. This capability bridges the gap between Planner’s visual task management and Excel’s robust data analysis tools. For teams tracking project timelines, resource allocation, or compliance requirements, the ability to export and manipulate this data becomes essential.

Automate planner export to Excel solutions

This tutorial covers multiple methods to export Microsoft Planner tasks to Excel, ranging from manual exports to fully automated solutions. We’ll explore both built-in features and Power Automate workflows that can schedule regular exports. These methods work with Planner in Microsoft Teams or standalone Planner. You’ll need access to the Planner board you want to export and appropriate permissions in Microsoft 365.

Export Microsoft Planner to Excel step-by-step

Method 1: Manual export using Microsoft Planner

  • Navigate to your Planner board by opening Teams, selecting the appropriate team/channel, and clicking on the Planner tab at the top.
  • Click on the three dots (?) in the upper right corner of the Planner board to open the menu options.
  • Select “Export plan to Excel” from the dropdown menu and wait a few moments while Planner generates the Excel file.
  • Once generated, the Excel file will automatically download to your computer, containing all task details including assignments, due dates, progress, and labels.
  • Open the downloaded Excel file to view your Planner data, which is formatted with filters already applied to help sort and analyze tasks by various criteria.

Method 2: Export planner to Excel PDF with Power Automate

  • Sign in to Power Automate (flow.microsoft.com) with your Microsoft 365 credentials and select “Create” from the left navigation panel.
  • Choose “Automated cloud flow” and name it something descriptive like “Weekly Planner Export to Excel” then select “Skip” to configure triggers manually.
  • Add a trigger by searching for “Schedule” and selecting “Schedule – Recurrence” to set up automatic exports on your preferred frequency.
  • Click “New step” and search for “Planner” then select “List tasks” from the Planner connector options that appear.
  • Configure the Planner connection by selecting the Plan ID from the dropdown (you’ll need to know which plan you want to export).
  • Add another step and search for “Create Excel file” from the Excel Online connector to format your Planner data into a spreadsheet.
  • Specify the SharePoint site, folder path, and file name (using dynamic content for dates if desired) where the Excel file will be saved.
  • Configure the Excel table format by mapping Planner task fields to Excel columns, ensuring you include all relevant data like Title, Assigned To, Progress, and Due Date.
  • Add a final step using “Convert file” and select PDF as the target format if stakeholders need PDF reports in addition to Excel files.

Method 3: Export data from Teams Planner with Graph API

  • Open Power Automate and create a new “Automated cloud flow” with your preferred trigger (scheduled or manual).
  • Add an “HTTP” action and configure it with these settings: Method: GET, URI: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/planner/plans/{planId}/tasks (replace {planId} with your actual Plan ID).
  • Add an “HTTP” action header with “Authorization” as the key and the expression “Bearer ” + outputs(‘GetAuthToken’).access_token as the value (you’ll need to implement an authentication step prior to this).
  • Add a “Parse JSON” step to process the response from the Graph API call, using the dynamic content from the previous HTTP request.
  • Create a “Create Excel file” action to format the parsed JSON data into an Excel spreadsheet, mapping the task properties to appropriate columns.
  • Configure additional steps to save the file to your preferred location (SharePoint, OneDrive) and notify team members when the export is complete.
  • Test your flow by triggering it manually and verify that all Planner task data appears correctly in the exported Excel file.

Troubleshooting export planner data to Excel

  • If you receive “Access Denied” errors when attempting to export Planner data, verify you have at least Member permissions for the Planner board and that your Microsoft 365 license includes Planner and Excel functionality.
  • When Power Automate flows fail during the “List tasks” step, the Plan ID might be incorrect or the connection may need to be refreshed – try recreating the connection and ensure you’re selecting the correct Planner board from the dropdown menu.
  • Excel exports sometimes show missing task assignments or incomplete data, which typically occurs because you need to expand nested properties in Power Automate by clicking “See more” under dynamic content and selecting specific properties like “assignments” or “checklist items”.
  • If exported data contains incorrect date formats, add a “Compose” action before creating the Excel file to format dates properly using expressions like formatDateTime(items(‘Apply_to_each’)?[‘dueDateTime’], ‘yyyy-MM-dd’).
  • When automation suddenly stops working after previously functioning correctly, check for Microsoft 365 service updates or permission changes in your tenant, as these can impact connector functionality and may require reconfiguring certain steps in your flow.