Taskavel records a task’s movement through a board so that you can see where work waits, how long delivery takes, and whether completed work is being reopened. Task metrics explain one task’s history. Board metrics aggregate the same movement data to show how the workflow performs as a whole.
Metrics are different from time tracking. A timer records how long a person actively works on a task. Flow metrics measure how long the task remains in workflow stages, including time when nobody has a timer running.
Configure workflow types before reading metrics
Every board column should have one of four workflow types:
- Planning — work being shaped, estimated, or prepared.
- Progressing — active implementation or execution.
- Testing — review, verification, or approval.
- Finish — completed work.
Owners and project administrators configure these types in the board’s Workflow Structure settings. Several columns can share the same type—for example, “Ideas” and “Ready” can both be planning columns.
Taskavel records time for the actual column and also groups it by workflow type. Without column types, the app cannot produce a meaningful flow breakdown and shows an empty-metrics message. Metrics begin to become useful after tasks move between configured columns; old work that has no recorded transitions cannot provide a complete historical picture.
Open metrics for one task
On a board, open Task Metrics from the metrics control on a task card or list row. The panel identifies the task, its current workflow stage, and assignees before showing the measurements.
The summary contains:
- Total lifecycle time — the accumulated duration recorded as the task moved through columns.
- Reopened — how many times the task moved back into active work after reaching a finish stage.
- Last moved — the most recent recorded column transition.
- Due date — the planned end date and whether the task finished, or is currently running, late.
If a completed task was reopened, due-date status is calculated against the active task again. A task with no planned end date has no on-time or overdue comparison.
Read time by column and time by flow
The Time by column tab shows how long the task stayed in each named column. This is where you can answer questions such as “How long was this task in Planning?” or “Did it wait longer in Review than in Development?”
The Time by flow tab combines columns that have the same workflow type. Use it when a board has several planning, progressing, or testing columns and you want one total for the wider stage.
The current column continues accumulating elapsed time until the task moves again. Consequently, metrics are a live view: opening the same active task later can show a larger duration even when no new transition has occurred.
Do not interpret a long stage duration as active labour. It can include nights, weekends, dependencies, waiting for feedback, or deliberately paused work. Compare it with comments, dependencies, activity, and tracked time before deciding why the task remained there.
Set stage limits and find stalled work
Board settings can define a maximum idle time for planning, progressing, testing, and finish workflow types. Task Metrics compares the task’s elapsed stage time with the configured limit and indicates whether it is within or over that threshold.
Use a limit as an operational signal, not as a performance score. A breached limit means the task needs attention or context; it does not prove that an assignee worked slowly. If you cannot edit the board, Taskavel directs you to contact the project owner or administrator to configure the workflow and limits.
Review board-level performance
Open Metrics in the board toolbar to see aggregated workflow measurements:
- Average cycle time — the average recorded delivery duration for tasks on the board, excluding planning from the board cycle-time calculation.
- Reopen rate — reopened tasks as a percentage of tasks that reached a finish column.
- Top bottleneck — the column with the highest average recorded duration.
- Slowest average — the average duration of that bottleneck column.
- Flow breakdown — average duration grouped by planning, progressing, and testing workflow types.
- Columns breakdown — average duration for each named non-finish column.
Use the board view to spot patterns, then open individual Task Metrics to investigate representative tasks. A bottleneck is a place to ask questions: it may indicate constrained review capacity, missing information, external approval, oversized tasks, or a workflow stage that is too broad.
Export task metrics
From the Task Metrics panel, use Export to to download the current task report as PDF or CSV. The export includes the task summary, due-date status, time by column, time by workflow type, and configured limits where available.
Exporting does not freeze future measurements. If the task moves again, a later export can contain different totals. Keep the export date with any report you share.
Know the measurement boundaries
Metrics depend on recorded board transitions. Moving a task within the same project records its workflow change; a move to another project changes the task’s workflow context and does not create a normal same-board transition metric. Boardless personal tasks do not have board columns, so column and board metrics do not apply to them.
Renaming a column does not change the meaning of its workflow type, but changing types changes how future reporting groups the stage. Keep the board structure stable enough that comparisons over time remain understandable.
Use flow metrics to improve the system of work, not to rank people. Review enough tasks to distinguish a recurring bottleneck from a legitimate one-off delay.
Related: Boards and columns, Task details, and Time tracking.