Task Completion Time Calculator
Work out how long a task will take from the amount of work and your rate (or time per item): hours, working days, a finish date that skips weekends, team size, breaks and setup time, a day-by-day progress table, and the rate or headcount needed to hit a deadline.
How it works
Effective rate = rate per person × people × productive % · Hours = setup + remaining work ÷ effective rate · Working days = hours ÷ hours per day · Finish date = start + working days (skipping non-working days) · Rate needed = remaining work ÷ (deadline days × hours per day − setup)
The time a task takes is the amount of work divided by how fast you clear it — the classic work-rate relationship. Enter your rate as units per hour (or per minute), or switch to time per item if you know that one unit takes, say, 72 seconds. Under More options you can subtract work already done, add people working in parallel, allow for breaks and interruptions with a productive percentage, and add a one-off setup time. The hour total is then spread over your working day and working week to give working days, weeks and a calendar finish date that skips weekends, and the day-by-day table shows how much is done each day. With a deadline in working days, it works backwards to the rate each person would need and how many people at your current rate would get it done.
Worked example
500 items at 50 per hour is 500 ÷ 50 = 10 hours. Working 8 hours a day, that is 10 ÷ 8 = 1.25 working days — a full day and a quarter of the next. If breaks take 15% of the day (85% productive), the effective rate is 42.5 per hour and the job takes 11 h 46 m. Two people at the original rate finish in 5 hours. To finish 2,000 items in 3 working days of 8 hours, you need 2,000 ÷ 24 = 83.3 per hour, which is two people at 50 per hour.
Frequently asked questions
What if my rate speeds up or slows down?
This uses a single average rate. Use the rate you can realistically sustain over the whole task rather than a short-burst best case, or split the job into segments and add the times.
Does this account for breaks?
Yes, if you set the productive share under More options (for example 85%), or if you enter hours per day that are already only your productive hours. Do one or the other, not both.
Does adding people always cut the time?
Only for work that splits cleanly, like data entry or packing. The calculator assumes everyone works at the same rate in parallel; tasks with hand-offs or a shared bottleneck speed up less than that.
How is the finish date worked out?
The working days are rounded up and counted from the start date, skipping Saturdays and Sundays (or just Sundays, or nothing, depending on your working days). Public holidays are not skipped, so add a day for each one in the period.
How is this different from an ETA?
This starts from a known rate. If instead you know how far along you already are, use the ETA from progress calculator, which infers the rate from your elapsed time and percent complete.
Related calculators
This calculator is for educational purposes. Double-check important results before acting on them.