Automatically load tasks from Excel to Microsoft Planner

Lists of activities to do to complete a project are often easier to brainstorm on paper or a whiteboard and then quickly type into an Excel spreadsheet rather than into a card-based system like Planner.

However, there is a way to quickly import tasks from Excel into Planner using a flow in the Workflows app!

To begin, create a new spreadsheet containing the task list:

Now select the cell Task Name and navigate Insert -> Table

The Create Table dialog will open. The correct range of cells should automatically populate, but you will need to select the ‘My table has headers’ checkbox, then click ok.

Change the table name to something memorable, for example "TaskList", by clicking in the Table Name field, typing the new name, and pressing enter:

Lastly, save the Excel:

Now to create the Flow:

Click the Add Apps button in Teams, search “workflows” and then click Open for the Workflows app by Microsoft:

Click Open to continue:

Navigate to the Create tab:

Choose Create from blank:

Choose the trigger Manually Trigger a Flow:

Choose Add a new Step:

Choose Excel then choose List Rows Present in a Table:

Click the drop down next to Location and select the OneDrive option:

Do the same for Document Library:

Click the folder icon and navigate through the directories to the Excel file saved earlier:

Click the drop-down for the Table parameter and choose the TaskList table created earlier:

Click Add New Step:

Search “planner” and choose ‘Create a Task’:

Set the Group ID and Plan ID based on your Planner configuration (create a Plan in your Planner if not yet done), and then choose ‘Task Name’ from the Excel values:

This is what the flow will look like:

Now update the flow Title to indicate what it does. Also update each Action name by clicking the 3 dots in the action and selecting rename:

Save the final flow and click Test to run it:

Select Manually and then click Test:

Click Continue:

Click Run flow:

Click Done:

The flow has run:

Check the Plan in Planner to see the tasks (you may need to navigate out of the plan and back in to refresh the list):