Visualizing "Remaining Effort" (Effort - Time Spent) distributed over time

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a way to visualize Remaining Effort distributed across a timeline in a bar chart (Histogram), and I’ve hit a roadblock with how Wrike handles calculated fields.

The Challenge

To calculate the remaining work, I created a custom formula field:[Effort] - [Time Spent]

The issue arises when I try to use this data in a report or Wrike Analyze:

Loss of Time Granularity: While native Effort and Timelogs can be spread across the task duration using the "Date" dimension (break by), my custom formula field loses this capability.
Limited Break By options: Instead of a daily distribution, the chart only allows me to "break by" Start Date or Due Date. This results in the total remaining hours being "clumped" at the beginning or end of the task, rather than showing (for example) 1 hour per day for a 30-day task.

My Goal

I want to see a chart where the Remaining Effort is spread across the task's duration, similar to how the native "Workload" view or "Effort" metric works.

Questions

Has anyone encountered this limitation when trying to plot calculated balances over time?
Is there a workaround in Wrike Analyze (perhaps using a widget-level formula instead of a task-level custom field) to maintain the daily distribution?
How do you track "Remaining Work" visually without it just being a static number on a single date?

Thanks in advance for any insights or best practices you can share!

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Comments

Meredith Selden

Hey Pietro! I've also run into this Wrike Analyze limitation - the only way to see "over time" is on the Workload Charts then you run into limitations there. We also were not able to solve for this one.

Pietro Poli

Thanks @Meredith Selden maybe others have some workaround.

Pietro Poli

@Claudio Mennecozzi any ideas on this?

Pietro Poli

After several attempts and a deep dive with Wrike Support, I’ve managed to achieve the desired result, but with some specific technical caveats.

I found that this is only possible using Wrike Analyze and specifically by leveraging the "Utilization & Performance" data model. By using this model, I can successfully visualize Planned Effort, Time Spent, and—most importantly—the calculated difference between them in a coherent chart. This setup maintains the necessary time granularity, allowing for a daily distribution (Histogram) rather than clumping data at the start or end dates.

The key is that in the 'Utilization & Performance' model, Effort and Time Spent are linked via the User Work Schedule Date, which acts as the common anchor that custom formulas in standard reports lack.

However, it’s important to note that this same result is not currently achievable using standard Wrike Dashboards. While Dashboards allow you to plot Effort and Time Spent side-by-side, they do not support the calculation of the "Remaining Effort" (the difference) as a distributed metric over time.

Wrike Support have already passed this feedback to the Wrike Product Team, highlighting the need to bring this type of calculated logic into the core Dashboard widgets to make this data more accessible without needing the advanced Analyze engine.

Pietro Poli

@Rohan V can you move this post on product feedback to gather votes?

Rohan V

Hi @Pietro Poli, I’ve moved your post to Product Feedback 👍