Burndown Chart
The Burndown Chart is one of the tabs inside a project record. It gives you a progress-over-time view of the project's work, so you can see at a glance whether remaining work is going down at a steady pace or stalling.
It complements the other project tabs: Tasks and Task Board show what the work is, Gantt Chart shows when it is scheduled, and Burndown Chart shows how the remaining work is trending.
Who can use it
- Anyone who can open the project record itself — typically the company admin and users assigned to the project.
- If you cannot see the project in the Projects list, you will not see its Burndown Chart tab either. Access to the tab follows access to the project.
Prerequisites
- A project must exist at Projects (
/account/projects). - The project must contain tasks. A project with no tasks has no work to burn down.
- For the most meaningful chart, keep task data current — in particular Estimated Time, Hours Logged, and Status (Incomplete, Under Review, Complete), which are the fields the task list tracks per task.
- The project's Start Date and Deadline should be set, so the period you are reviewing progress against is defined.
How to Access
- Go to Projects (
/account/projects). - Open the project you want to review.
- Select the Burndown Chart tab in the project's tab bar (alongside Overview, Files, Milestones, Tasks, Task Board, Gantt Chart, Invoices, Estimates, Orders, Timesheet, Expenses, Payments, Discussion, Notes, Rating, Activity and Tickets).
Keeping the chart accurate
The chart is a reflection of your task data — it does not generate progress of its own. To keep it trustworthy:
- Mark work complete as it finishes. Tasks have a Mark As Complete action directly on the task; if the team does the work but never changes the status, the chart will look stalled.
- Set Estimated Time on tasks. Estimated Time is one of the columns the task list tracks; filling it in is what lets you compare planned effort against Hours Logged.
- Log time. Time can be captured through Timesheet / Time Logs (
/account/timelogs), where total hours are auto-calculated from the start and end datetime pair, or through the Weekly Timesheet grid. - Keep dates realistic. If the project deadline has moved, update the project so the timeline you are measuring against is the real one.
Reviewing the chart with your team
- Look at it on a regular cadence (for example at the start of the week to plan, and mid-week to course-correct) rather than only at the deadline.
- If remaining work stops falling, check first whether tasks are genuinely blocked or simply not being updated — the two look identical on the chart.
- If remaining work increases, look for tasks added to the project after kick-off. Decide whether to absorb the new scope, defer it, or move the deadline.
- Use it as a talking point in retrospectives: the shape of the line over the project's life is usually a better conversation starter than a single status percentage.
Effect on other features
- Tasks — the chart is downstream of task data (
/account/tasks). Changing a task's status, estimate or dates changes what the chart shows. - Timesheet / Time Logs — hours logged against tasks (
/account/timelogs) feed the same progress picture, and also appear in the project's Timesheet tab. - Gantt Chart — the project's Gantt tab covers scheduling; the burndown covers pace. Neither replaces the other.
- Project Overview — the Overview tab separately shows task progress, hours logged, project budget, earnings, expenses and profit for the same project.
- Reports — the same underlying task and time data drives Task Report (
/account/task-report), Time Log Report (/account/time-log-report) and Weekly Timesheet (/account/time-log-weekly-report).
Limitations
- The chart only reflects what is recorded. Work done but not marked complete, or time spent but never logged, will not appear. Workaround: make a short end-of-day or end-of-week update habit, and use the Weekly Timesheet's Save → Submit For Approval flow so entries are reviewed rather than forgotten.
- Tasks left without an Estimated Time give you nothing to compare against. A large task and a trivial task read the same when neither has an estimate. Workaround: set Estimated Time when creating tasks, and split oversized tasks using the task detail Sub Task tab.
- It is a project-level view. The Burndown Chart tab lives inside a single project record, so it does not span several projects at once.
Workaround: use Project Roadmap (
/account/projectroadmap), which shows all projects with progress bars, current status and deadlines in one view, or Task Report (/account/task-report) and the Projects dashboard (/account/project-dashboard). - Scope added mid-project is not separated out for you. The chart shows the combined effect. Workaround: cross-check the project's Activity tab to see what was added and when.
Troubleshooting
- The Burndown Chart tab is empty or flat. Confirm the project actually has tasks, and that at least some have changed status or accumulated logged hours. A project where everything is still Incomplete has nothing to plot as progress.
- Progress looks worse than reality. Check the Tasks tab for finished work still sitting at Incomplete or Under Review, and for missing time logs.
- The timeline looks wrong. Verify the project's Start Date and Deadline on the project record, and the Start Date / Due Date on the individual tasks.
- You cannot see the tab at all. You need access to the project itself; ask your company admin to confirm your project access and role permissions.
- Numbers disagree with a report. Compare against Task Report and Time Log Report for the same date range; a mismatch usually points to time logged against the wrong project or task.