BTCSoftware's Effort system allows you to estimate and record the ease or difficulty of tasks, providing a consistent way to compare workload across clients and events. Effort is measured in abstract 'Points' — your practice can define what a point represents, for example hours, minutes, or a difficulty rating.

Before recording effort against events, you need to create the effort point definitions:

1. Go to Administration > Data > Effort from the top toolbar.
2. Click New Record on the toolbar.
3. Enter a Description and the number of Effort Points for that definition.
4. Click Save.
5. Repeat for each effort level you want to define.

This report shows a list of clients with their associated effort data, including estimated fee:

1. From the top toolbar, go to Reports > Effort Summaries > Client Effort Summary.
2. The report shows all clients with effort data — number of events, estimated effort, remaining effort, and estimated fee.
3. To drill down into a specific client's effort detail, select the client from the list and click View Client Effort Detail.
4. The detail view shows effort data for each individual event recorded against that client.

This report shows effort data summarised by event type across your entire client base:

1. From the top toolbar, go to Reports > Effort Summaries > Event Effort Summary.
2. The report shows all event types with number of events, estimated effort, remaining effort, and estimated fee.
3. To view the detail for a specific event type, select it and click View Event Effort Detail, or double right-click on the event.
4. The detail view shows effort data for that event type and the associated clients.
5. Double right-clicking on an event from the detail view will open the task directly.

BTCSoftware automatically records time spent on system-defined tasks — Tax Returns, Year End Accounts, VAT Returns, and other HMRC forms. Time is logged whenever the task is in Edit mode, even if no keystrokes are being made.

Q: Effort data is not appearing on a client — what should I check?

A: Effort data is only recorded when effort details are added at the task or appointment level. When creating or editing a task, look for the Effort section and enter the estimated and actual effort values.

Q: Can I use hours as my effort unit?

A: Yes. Effort points are abstract — you can define them to represent hours, minutes, or any other unit. Simply label your effort point definitions accordingly (e.g., '1 point = 1 hour').