Project Labour & Duration Calculator – Crew & Schedule
THE HANDYMAN HUB · FREE CALCULATOR
Project Labour & Duration Calculator
Turn measured quantities and observed productivity into paid person-hours and an elapsed schedule, with optional parallel phases and waits.
YOUR PLAN
Your labour and project schedule
Paid person-hours, elapsed duration, task spans and optional labour cost.
Enter measured work and productivity, then calculate.
Inputs changed. Calculate again to update the schedule.
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Estimate labour and elapsed project time separately
This project labour and duration calculator turns measured quantities and observed production rates into paid person-hours and a working schedule. It distinguishes the work performed by the crew from nights, weekends and entered waiting periods. Start with a single task or enable a multi-task schedule with sequential phases and parallel work.
The calculator does not supply universal trade productivity rates. Enter a rate based on comparable work, your own records or an assessed project method. The result is only as useful as those inputs and the dependencies between tasks. The aim is to make the assumptions visible rather than hide them inside a single unexplained day count.
Quantity and units per person-hour
Use the same work unit for quantity and productivity. For example,100square metres at5square metres per person-hour requires20productive person-hours. A person-hour is one person's work for one hour. It is not automatically an hour of elapsed time for the whole crew.
With two people and the assumed linear output, those20person-hours become10crew working hours. Adding people shortens the productive working duration only if the work can actually be shared at the entered rate. Access, equipment, supervision and congestion may limit that assumption in practice.
The optional productivity factor can represent a lower achieved rate for the specific job. At80percent, the calculator divides the productive hours by0.8. Do not apply the same allowance twice if the observed rate already includes the relevant site conditions. Setup and waiting are treated separately and do not change with this factor.
Working hours and the recurring calendar
Choose paid working hours per day and a Monday-to-Friday, Monday-to-Saturday or everyday working week. Day1 begins at the normal daily shift start on your selected weekday. The same continuous work block repeats on each working day. Intra-day breaks are not scheduled. The tool does not assume dates, public holidays or a particular clock start time.
A task needing10crew working hours on an eight-hour day uses eight hours on the first day, then two hours on the next working day. Starting on Monday, that is26elapsed hours from the first shift start: one24-hour day plus two hours. It is still20paid person-hours for a two-person crew.
Starting the same task on Friday in a Monday-to-Friday calendar moves the final two hours to Monday. The extra weekend time changes elapsed duration but not the paid labour. This distinction is why dividing total person-hours by a nominal day length cannot by itself produce a complete project schedule.
Setup uses the whole crew
Setup is entered as hours during which the whole task crew is present. One setup hour for two people adds two paid person-hours and one crew working hour. It does not shrink when a larger crew is selected. Use an assessed combined setup allowance for the task.
If only one person performs a setup activity, represent it as a separate task with that crew size in the bulk schedule. That is clearer than charging the whole main crew for time when they are not required. Avoid including the same setup inside both the productivity rate and the separate setup input.
Waiting is elapsed time without automatic labour
The wait field is elapsed hours after the task's work finishes. It runs continuously through nights and weekends. A24-hour wait means24actual elapsed hours, not three eight-hour working days. No paid labour is added for that wait.
A following phase cannot begin until the relevant waits have ended, and its work then moves to the next available working slot. The final project ready time includes any wait after the final phase. That can matter when the last working action is followed by a specified period before use or handover.
The tool does not choose curing, drying, inspection or treatment times. Enter the applicable requirement for the actual work. If waiting requires active attendance, represent the attendance as a separate paid task instead of assuming the wait field includes it.
Several tasks and phase numbers
Bulk entry uses seven columns: name, quantity, units per person-hour, crew, phase number, whole-crew setup hours and elapsed wait hours. Use commas or tabs, no header, and zero for absent setup or waiting. Each row can have its own quantity unit, provided its productivity uses that same unit.
Tasks with the same phase number start together using separate crews. Higher-numbered phases follow in order. A phase starts only after every task in the previous phase is ready after its wait. Missing phase numbers do not create empty days; the numbers establish order rather than duration.
This is a simple phase model, not a general dependency network. If one later task can start before another branch finishes, reorganise the phases carefully or use a fuller scheduling tool. Do not place dependent tasks in the same phase merely to produce a shorter headline duration.
Check crew availability
The peak crew figure sums the separate people assigned to tasks that start together in each phase, then reports the largest total. The optional available-people check rejects a phase exceeding your entered capacity. It does not automatically reassign the same people across overlapping tasks.
People are not the only shared resource. Two tasks may need the same room, machine, access route or supervisor. Review those constraints separately. The resource check is a useful arithmetic guard against double-booking labour, not proof that the proposed overlap is workable.
A phased example
Consider a first task of100units at5units per person-hour with two people, one whole-crew setup hour and a24-hour wait. It needs11crew working hours and22paid person-hours. Starting Monday with eight-hour days, its work finishes three hours into Tuesday, and the wait ends three hours into Wednesday.
A second phase of30units at5units per person-hour with one person needs six working hours. It can use the remaining five hours on Wednesday, then one hour on Thursday. The total is28paid person-hours and73elapsed hours from Monday's shift start, including the wait and off-shift time.
If both tasks were truly independent and assigned separate crews in the same phase, the paid hours would remain28while the elapsed plan would change. That comparison is only valid when the overlap and resources are real. A shorter calendar result should not be obtained by hiding a dependency.
Read the timeline correctly
Green bars show each task's scheduled span from work start to work finish, including any nights or weekends inside that span. Gold bars show the entered waits afterward. Bar width represents elapsed time; it is not a visual total of paid hours. The table gives the paid person-hours explicitly.
Time labels use day number, weekday and hours after the recurring shift start. They are relative schedule coordinates, not clock times or calendar dates. The first day may be non-working under the chosen calendar, in which case work starts at the next working slot and the elapsed result includes that initial gap.
Optional labour costs and printing
The cost section applies one entered cost per paid person-hour to all tasks, then adds other project costs. Markup adds to cost and tax applies afterward. Waiting and non-working calendar hours are not charged automatically. Use a suitably assessed rate or a separate costing method if crew members have materially different costs.
The free print preview preserves task quantities, crew assignments, phase order, schedule spans and active costs. Keep a project name with the report and revise the inputs when the observed rate or plan changes. The separate optional Quote & Invoice Generator can turn checked costs into a customer document.
Labour and duration FAQs
What is a person-hour?
One person's work for one hour. Two people working ten hours contribute twenty person-hours.
Does adding crew always shorten the job?
Only under the entered linear productivity assumption. Setup does not shrink, and practical resource limits may prevent the assumed output.
Are nights and weekends paid automatically?
No. The calendar advances elapsed time without adding paid work outside the selected shift.
Does a24-hour wait mean three working days?
No. It means24continuous elapsed hours and adds no paid labour.
Can tasks overlap?
Yes. Put independent tasks in the same phase with separate crews and check available resources.
Does the result include the final wait?
Yes. It reports readiness after the final phase's work and waiting requirements.
Does it include holidays or actual dates?
No. It uses a recurring working week and relative day numbers.
Related free calculators
Carry paid labour and elapsed duration into the right estimate
Keep person-hours, crew size, working days and waits distinct. Use observed or supplied productivity for the measured task, then check which activities share a crew. An elapsed wait can extend the programme without creating the same number of paid labour hours.
Use the hourly and day rate calculator for an entered labour-rate scenario and the job price calculator for the overall quote. Equipment retained during waits can be compared in the tool hire versus buy calculator. Keep a single labour allowance when the same tasks also appear in material calculators.