Estimates and budget alerts

Allotted time is the estimate on a task. It is what turns logged hours into variance figures, a forecast and overrun alerts.

Set allotted time on a task

Set it from the task's detail slideout, from a project's Time tab, or on the task row in a project's table. It takes the same duration formats as a time entry, up to 999 hours, and you can clear it again.

A task with no estimate is not treated as zero. It is counted separately and left out of variance figures.

Super Admins, Creators, Collaborators and Integrators can set allotted time. The field is unavailable once a task is complete or archived, or once its project is archived.

Set allotted time on a playbook

Put estimates on the tasks inside a playbook or module template, and every project created from it starts with those estimates in place. This is where estimates pay off, and it is what the Playbook variance report compares against.

Estimates on a template follow the same permissions as editing the template.

Where estimates show up

• Task rows and the task slideout — worked against allotted, with overrun shown in colour.

• A project's Time tab — worked against allotted per task and per module, plus the project's weekly pace.

• Allotted vs worked in Insights — which projects and tasks are running hot.

• Playbook variance in Insights — whether your estimates hold up across projects.

• Forward capacity in Insights — built from open assigned tasks that have an estimate and a due date.

Budget alerts

Turn on Alert project owners in Settings and pick a threshold. When hours logged against a project's estimated tasks cross that share of the allotted total, the project owner gets an email.

• One email per project per threshold.

• Raising the threshold arms it again, so a project already past the new figure alerts once more.

• Only the project owner is emailed. The project needs an active owner.

• Thresholds above 100% are allowed, for teams that only want to hear about clear overruns.

Improve your estimates

Playbook variance averages worked against allotted across every project run from the same template. Where a module is consistently off, it suggests a new estimate.

Applying the suggestion updates the template, spread across that module's tasks. Projects already running are not changed — the next project created from the playbook starts with the new figures.

Super Admins and Creators can apply a suggestion. Averages over fewer than five projects are flagged, so you know when a figure is based on very little.