Project Health & Progress

Every PrimeTask project has two headline numbers: Progress (how much work is done) and Health (how well the project is tracking against expectations). Both are auto-calculated - you never set them directly. Progress rolls up from tasks, milestones, goals, and CRM tasks with adaptive weights; Health evaluates progress against expected pace, milestone status, and overdue counts to produce one of five state labels.

This article explains exactly how those calculations work, what each health state means, and how the Actionable Recommendations Engine surfaces the top issues at any moment.

What you can do

Progress - the weighted pillar model

Project progress combines four pillars, each with a default weight:

The overall project progress is the weighted sum of each pillar's progress multiplied by its weight.

Adaptive weight normalisation

PrimeTask doesn't penalise you for pillars you don't use. If your project has no goals, the goal weight is redistributed proportionally to the remaining pillars so they add up to 100%. Same for any pillar - tasks-only, tasks+milestones, goals+milestones, any combination.

Example - a project with tasks and milestones but no goals or CRM tasks:

• Original weights: Tasks 35%, Milestones 35%, Goals 20%, CRM 10%
• Adaptive weights: Tasks 50%, Milestones 50% (the 30% from goals and CRM is split evenly across the active pillars)

This is why the Progress Breakdown widget on the Overview tab shows your actual weights, not just the defaults - see Project Overview Tab.

How each pillar's progress is calculated

Tasks

Each task contributes a progress value based on its status, explicit completion percentage (if set), and its subtasks or checklist. PrimeTask uses the weighted-parent strategy by default - subtask completion rolls up into the parent's progress. The task progress engine supports three strategies:

• Weighted-parent (default) - parent progress averages its own status with subtask progress
• Flat - parent and subtasks all count individually
• Hybrid - parent status is 70% of the weight, subtasks and checklist are 30%

The tasks pillar is the average progress of all project tasks - including subtasks via whichever strategy applies.

See Subtasks & Checklists for the task progress mechanics.

Milestones

Each milestone's progress is computed live from its linked tasks and CRM tasks - not from a stored value. The formula is simple:

milestone progress = (completed linked tasks + CRM tasks) / total linked items × 100

When a milestone has no linked items, it falls back to its stored progress value. See Project Milestones.

Goals

Each goal's progress averages its Key Results and its linked milestones:

• Key Results only - average of each Key Result's progress (computed as ((current − start) / (target − start)) × 100, clamped 0–100)
• Linked milestones only - average of milestone progress values
• Both - the two averages are combined 50/50

See Project Goals.

CRM Tasks

When a project has CRM enabled, CRM tasks linked to the project contribute as a separate pillar with a 10% default weight. CRM task progress is calculated the same way as regular tasks (status-based with subtask support).

Why the progress number might surprise you

If a project is 100% on tasks but only 20% on goals, the tasks pillar is full but the goals pillar drags the overall number down. Expand the Progress Breakdown widget to see which pillar is pulling you up or down - each pillar shows its own progress and its contribution to the overall number.

Expected Progress - the deadline-driven baseline

Expected Progress is "where should we be by now, based on the calendar?" It's calculated from your project's start date and deadline:

expected progress = (elapsed time / total duration) × 100

Clamped between 0 and 100.

Example - a 30-day project that's 15 days in has an expected progress of 50%. If your actual progress is 40%, you're 10 points behind expected; if you're at 70%, you're 20 points ahead.

Schedule Gap

The Metrics tab's Schedule Gap insight card shows the difference between actual progress and expected progress:

• Positive gap → ahead of schedule (labeled "Ahead of expected")
• Negative gap → behind schedule (labeled "Behind expected")

See Project Metrics for the full metrics dashboard.

When expected progress isn't available

Expected progress requires both a start date and a deadline. Without both, the comparison can't be calculated:

• The Progress Over Time chart doesn't show an expected-progress overlay
• The Schedule Gap card shows progress only, no gap
• Health falls back to a simpler progress-based calculation (see below)

Set a start date and deadline on your project (from Edit Project) to unlock the full calculation.

Health - five states from multi-factor analysis

Health is PrimeTask's single-glance summary of how the project is tracking. Five possible states:

Health is not something you set - it's derived from the project's live data. The derivation depends on whether the project has a deadline.

Health when the project has a deadline

When both start date and deadline are set, PrimeTask runs a multi-factor check. The worst matching condition wins. From most severe to least:

Critical

Any of these conditions:

• More than 3 days overdue past the deadline
• Progress is 30+ points below expected
• More than 40% of tasks are overdue
• Milestone progress is 25+ points below expected

Behind

Any of these (without matching Critical):

• Past the deadline (any amount overdue)
• Progress is 20+ points below expected
• The next milestone is already overdue

At Risk

Any of these (without matching Critical or Behind):

• Within 7 days of the deadline with progress under 85%
• Progress is 10+ points below expected
• More than 20% of tasks are overdue
• Goal progress is 15+ points below expected
• Milestone progress is 15+ points below expected
• The next milestone is within 3 days

On Track

None of the above match.

Completed

Project is marked complete (all work done, status "Completed") - this overrides health.

Health when the project has no deadline

Without a deadline, PrimeTask can't compare against expected pace. Health falls back to simpler progress-based checks:

• Critical - more than 50% of tasks overdue, or progress under 20%
• Behind - more than 30% of tasks overdue
• At Risk - more than 10% of tasks overdue, or progress under 30%
• On Track - none of the above

Health updates live

Every change in the project - adding a task, completing a milestone, extending a deadline, changing a Key Result value - recalculates health on next render. You don't refresh or save anything. The Health badge in the project header, the Health card on the Overview tab, and the Health Streak on the Metrics tab all reflect the current state instantly.

The health explanation sentence

The Project Health Card on the Overview tab includes an explanation sentence that tells you why the project has its current state - which specific factor triggered it (overdue tasks, progress behind expected, an overdue milestone). This is your fastest answer to "why isn't this On Track?" See Project Overview Tab.

Explain Health help

The project header has an Explain Health action that opens a help modal with a general explanation of the health calculation. Use this when you want to understand the model at a deeper level without reading this article. See Project Header.

The Actionable Recommendations Engine

The Overview tab's Health Assistant surfaces the top three most urgent issues in the project using a dedicated recommendations engine. Recommendations are sorted by severity - the three most critical appear first.

What gets flagged

The engine checks for ten categories of issues:

Severity ordering

Recommendations are sorted: Critical > High > Medium > Info. The engine always shows the three most urgent, so if you have two critical overdue milestones and a medium blocked task, you'll see the two critical milestones plus the next most urgent item.

Empty state

When none of these conditions apply, the Health Assistant shows "No urgent recommendations" - meaning everything's on schedule with no issues above the thresholds.

Resolving recommendations

The engine is live - resolve an issue (complete an overdue task, extend a deadline, unblock a milestone) and the recommendation drops off. New items rise to fill the slots as they're flagged. Over a well-maintained project, the list should trend toward empty.

Things worth knowing

Progress and Health are not the same thing

You can have a project that's 100% on progress but flagged At Risk (perhaps an upcoming overdue milestone isn't linked to any tasks but is part of a goal). Or a project at 50% progress that's On Track (because it's only halfway through the planned duration). Progress is how much is done; health is how well we're tracking against expectations.

The Schedule Gap is measurable

You can see the exact gap between actual and expected progress on the Metrics tab's Schedule Gap card (Project Metrics). If you're behind, close the gap by completing work faster or extending the deadline.

Milestones drive more than you'd expect

Milestones influence progress (via their pillar), goal progress (when linked), and health (via their own progress-vs-expected and overdue flags). A missed milestone can shift health from On Track to At Risk even if tasks look fine. See Project Milestones.

Goals also shift project priority

The project's priority stat is derived from goal priorities - any Critical goal makes the project Critical, any High makes it High. See Project Goals.

Subtasks affect task progress automatically

When the weighted-parent strategy is in effect (the default), a task's progress accounts for its subtasks. Completing subtasks advances the parent's progress, which advances the tasks pillar, which advances the project's overall progress. See Subtasks & Checklists.

Recurring tasks are counted once per active cycle

Recurring tasks have a single current instance at any time. The current instance counts toward progress and health like any other task - completing it advances progress and generates the next recurrence. See Recurring Tasks.

Completing the project overrides health

Marking a project as Completed (status) sets health to Completed regardless of other factors. This is the right final state when the project is truly done even if some tasks are technically overdue.

Without a deadline, expected progress disappears

Expected progress is the backbone of the deadline-driven health model. Without a deadline, health falls back to simpler checks (overdue percentage, low progress), but you lose the schedule-gap insight. Add a deadline to unlock the full calculation.

Common questions

Where to go next