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Task Effort

Task effort is a part of the Wrike for Professional Services package and regular and external users can view and specify task effort.

Overview

Effort is a task attribute that shows how much time is required to complete a task. It can be different from duration which indicates the time period within which an assignee should complete the task. For example, a task can span multiple days but require only several hours of work a day from each of its assignees.

Important Information

  • Effort is displayed in hours and minutes; however, you can enter time in days (e.g. “8d”) and it’ll be automatically converted into hours.
  • When you add Basic or Daily effort to tasks that have job roles as assignees, effort is automatically equally distributed among users and job roles.

Tasks without Effort

When you create a task, it doesn't have effort by default. Tasks without effort can be used as:

  • Action items which don't require time to complete.
  • Non-action items: meetings notes, specifications, etc.

To effectively manage your resources, specify effort for all action items which require time to complete.

🖐Note! Since milestones don’t have a duration, effort can’t be applied to them.

You can also set default effort for all new tasks::

  1. Click on your profile picture in your Workspace's upper-right corner.
  2. Select "Settings" from the dropdown.
  3. "Profile" opens by default.
  4. Scroll to the "Tasks & Subtasks" section.
  5. Click the dropdown field under "Default Effort mode for new tasks."
  6. Select the default effort type for new tasks.
  7. Click "Save changes."

Effort Types

There are three types of effort in Wrike: Basic, Daily, and Flexible.

Basic

Basic effort type works when your team members have to switch between several tasks during the day, and all task assignees equally contribute to its completion.

Use case: Estimate if all tasks can be completed during a workweek.

When Basic effort type is selected:

  • Effort and duration are completely independent of each other.
  • Effort is spread evenly among duration and all task assignees.

Daily

Use the Daily effort type to allocate a certain amount of effort per day for each task assignee in the form of hours per day or the percentages of users’ daily capacity:

  • Set a specific number of hours per day a user(s) should work to complete the task. The total effort for a user(s) in the task is then calculated as (the number of hours per day * the task duration * the number of assignees). If you shorten or extend the task duration, the total effort is re-calculated automatically.
  • Set a percentage of the working day that a user(s) should spend working on a task. The total allocated effort for the task is similarly calculated as (the users’ allocated percentage per day (in hours) * the task duration * the number of assignees).
    Note: The default users’ daily capacity used for the Daily effort type is 8 hours and it can’t be changed.
    For example, a user can work on two tasks at the same time, and using the Daily effort type, you can allocate 50% of the user’s daily capacity to be spent on each of the tasks. If the tasks have 5-day durations and the user is a single assignee, the total allocated effort for each task will be 50%(4 h/d)*5days*1 assignee = 20 hours. If the tasks have two assignees, the total effort of each task will be doubled: 50%(4 h/d)*5days*2 assignees = 40 hours.

Use case: Estimate the required effort based on the task complexity.

Flexible

Select a Flexible effort type to gain full control over effort allocation.

Use case: tasks which require a different amount of time from different assignees and on different days.

When Flexible effort type is selected:

  • You can specify the number of hours independently for each assignee and working day.
  • You see how many hours you have already allocated and the total effort, so you always know how many hours are yet to be allotted.

Note: hours specified using this Effort type are fixed to the user and nominated date(s) or job role. Rescheduling or reassignment will clear the previously set effort.

Specify Task Effort

Enter task effort from:

  • The task’s date picker (the box that appears when you add a date
    to a task).
  • The Workload chart.
  • The Table view and the table portion of the Gantt Chart.
  • The recurrence window when making a task recurrent or editing the recurrence.

🖐Note! Effort is also visible on Reports. You can open the Task view from Reports and edit effort from there.

Edit Effort From the Task View

  1. Open the Task view.
  2. Click the date section at the top of the Task view.
  3. Click the “Effort” toggle in the lower-right corner of the date picker.
  4. Change the effort type if necessary.
  5. Enter how much time the task should take in the “Effort” field.
  6. Click “Save.”

Edit Effort From the Workload Chart

  1. Click the Workload tab at the top of the workspace.
  2. Click the task whose effort you want to change. If the task doesn't have effort enabled, click "Enable effort" in the task preview.
  3. In the tooltip that appears you can:
    • Enter how much time a task should take.
    • Change the effort type.
  4. If you selected the flexible effort type, you’ll see how many hours you have allocated along with the total effort in the "Effort" field. To specify the number of hours applicable to each working day:
    • Click in the cell that appears on the Task bar.
    • Enter a number of hours the assignee should spend on the task on this particular day.
    • Repeat these steps for each day and task assignee, until the allocated hours and total effort are equal.

Edit Effort From the Table View and Gantt Chart

  1. Open the Table view or Gantt Chart.
  2. If you don’t see the “Effort” column, click the gear icon and check the box next to its title.
  3. Double-click in the “Effort” cell in the row of the task whose effort you want to change.
  4. Enter how much time the task should take.

Recurrent Tasks

  1. Open the Task view.
  2. Click on the three-dot menu in the upper right-hand corner of the task.
  3. From the pop-up menu, select "Make Recurrent" (or "Edit Recurrence" if you want to add effort to a task with an existing recurrence).
  4. Click on the date picker.
  5. Enable “Effort” by clicking on the toggle at the lower right-hand corner of the date picker.
  6. Change the effort type, if necessary.
  7. Enter how much time the task should take, in the “Effort” field.
  8. Change other recurrence settings if necessary and click “Save.”
The effort you specified in the recurrence settings is applied to all tasks in the recurrence. 
You can also set and edit effort individually for each recurrent task from the Task view.

🖐Note!

  • When you clear the "Effort" cell, it disables the effort on a task. To avoid this, set the effort to 0 instead of deleting it.
  • Enter a value in the empty "Effort" cell to enable Basic effort type for a task. You can change the effort type from the Task view if necessary.
  • If Flexible effort type is enabled, two values are displayed in the “Effort” field: the number of allocated hours and the total effort.

Disable Effort for a Task

Disable Effort From the Task View

  1. Open the Task view.
  2. Click the date section in the upper part of the Task view.
  3. Click the “Effort” toggle at the bottom of the date picker.

Disable Effort From the Workload Chart

  1. Click the Workload tab at the top of the workspace.
  2. Click the task whose effort you want to disable.
  3. Click the three-dot menu button on the task preview.
  4. Select "Disable effort."
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