Elapsed Durations #
An ordinary duration is measured in working time. A three-day task on a Monday-to-Friday, eight-hours-a-day calendar takes 24 working hours, and if it starts on Thursday it finishes on Monday — the weekend does not count.
An elapsed duration is measured in clock time. It counts continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, through weekends, holidays, and every non-working exception on the calendar.
Use it for anything that does not care whether your team is at work: concrete curing, paint drying, a test soak, a regulatory waiting period, or shipping in transit.
Entering an Elapsed Duration #
Type the duration with an e before the unit:
| You type | You get |
|---|---|
3d |
3 working days |
3ed |
3 elapsed days — 72 clock hours |
2ew |
2 elapsed weeks — 14 calendar days |
8eh |
8 elapsed hours |
The units are min, h, d, w, and m — minutes, hours, days, weeks, months — and every one of them takes the e. The abbreviations are translated, so in a non-English interface use that language's unit letters; the e marker stays.
You can also use the Elapsed checkbox instead of typing, in the duration editor of the Task Properties dialog. Its tooltip is the definition:
Elapsed. When checked, duration counts continuously (24/7) instead of only during working hours defined by the calendar.
Ticking or unticking the box keeps the number you can see and changes what it means: 3d becomes 3ed. It does not silently convert 3 working days into the equivalent number of elapsed days.
What an Elapsed Unit Is Worth #
Elapsed units ignore your project calendar and use fixed calendar arithmetic:
| Unit | Elapsed value |
|---|---|
| 1 elapsed day | 24 hours |
| 1 elapsed week | 7 days = 168 hours |
| 1 elapsed month | 30 days = 720 hours |
Compare that with working units, which come from Project Properties — by default 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 20 days a month. So 1w is 40 working hours while 1ew is 168 clock hours.
Elapsed Lag on a Dependency #
The same idea applies to the lag on a dependency, and this is where it matters most. "Start the next task three days after this one finishes" usually means three calendar days, not three working days — otherwise a Friday finish pushes the successor to Wednesday.
In the Predecessors tab of Task Properties, each link has its own Elapsed checkbox next to the lag, with the same meaning:
When checked, lag time counts continuously (24/7) instead of only during working hours defined by the calendar.
You can type it directly too: a lag of 3ed is three calendar days.
Import and Export #
Elapsed durations and lags are part of the Microsoft Project format and survive a round trip in both directions. A 3ed duration imported from Microsoft Project stays 3ed, and exports back as an elapsed duration.