Hour estimates on activities
The activity estimate answers “how long should this deliverable take?”, not “how much have we already logged”. Without it, the board only shows cards; with it, the team sees the size of the work and progress against what was agreed.
In Rabbiit the estimate adds up the subactivities. The parent card shows the total of the children (and, if the parent also has its own number, both go into the same sum). Progress uses hours logged on the parent and on the children against that total.
This avoids the habit of putting “40 hours” only on the big title and hiding the steps. Each step can have its own estimate; the parent closes the math on its own.
Where to fill it in
Activities list with estimate and hours
- Open the project in Activities or Kanban.
- Open the activity (or the subactivity).
- Fill in the hour estimate in the card planning.
- In the list and on the board, the parent card shows the summed total.
Who can change estimate and due date depends on the Modify planning permission on that project. The administrator and the project manager always can. A member only changes it if the project rule allows it — see activity permissions.
How the sum works
Open activity with the parent estimate, the children estimates, and the total with subtasks
Each activity and each subactivity can have its own estimate.
- The parent total = parent estimate + sum of the children’s estimates.
- If the parent is empty and the children have numbers, the card total is the sum of the children.
- A child without an estimate does not enter the sum (it does not “zero out” the others).
- The parent’s progress compares hours logged on the parent and the children with that total.
On the list and on the board the summary shows only hours and minutes. Seconds do not appear. Progress still adds the parent and the children.
Example: the parent “Client website” has 2 h of coordination; the children have 8 h of layout and 6 h of content. The card shows 16 h. If the team has already logged 8 h on the set, progress goes to halfway.
On the board, the same total appears on the card — not only the estimate typed on the parent.
How the team uses it
Whoever breaks down the work — estimates each subactivity. The parent stops being a single guess.
Whoever coordinates — looks at the parent card for the size of the deliverable, without opening a spreadsheet. If the total went past what was agreed with the client, the overrun shows on the card, not at month-end.
Whoever logs hours — logs on the card where they actually worked (parent or child). The child’s hour counts in the parent’s progress.
Estimate is not the project’s money budget. Budget and billing amount live in the project’s financial settings. Here it is only planned hours on the card.
When to estimate on the parent, the children, or both
Only on the children — the work is already broken down and each step has an owner. The parent becomes the total. This is the cleanest case.
Parent and children — the parent has a piece that does not become a step (coordination, buffer). That number adds to the children; it does not replace them.
Only on the parent — the card has not been broken down yet. It works as a temporary ceiling. When subactivities appear, spread the estimate so progress follows the step, not only the title.
When to use
Use when the client or the manager asks “does this fit in this week?” and the answer needs hours, not a feeling.
It can wait on five-minute cards. Too many numbers on a small board become noise.
Do not use the activity estimate in place of the task on the time entry. The task classifies the hour; the estimate sizes the card.