Hi everyone, how’s it going?
Does anyone know why the ‘Actual Effort’ field—which is native to the time-tracking system—isn’t available as a condition when setting up rules?
I’m trying to create a rule to remind employees to fill out this field. If a task is completed and the ‘Actual Effort’ field is blank, it should create a sub-task reminding them to log their actual hours.
Thank You!
Hi @Mauricio_Donati, this is a current limitation. Native time tracking fields like “Actual Effort” aren’t available in the rule builder, so you can’t use “is blank” as a condition.
A few simple workarounds:
Create a custom number field (e.g., “Actual Hours”) and set a rule: when task is completed and the field = 0 → create a reminder subtask
Or trigger a reminder subtask/comment whenever a task is completed (no field check)
You can also use a saved search to find tasks with empty/0 values and follow up
Not ideal, but these are the most reliable options for now.
Hi @Mauricio_Donati ,
If you mean the native ‘Actual time’ time tracking field then @Iren_Vilaniso 's response is right.
However, there isn’t a native field called ‘Actual Effort’ - so in case that is a number field you have added to your library, then you can use it as a condition in rules with the ‘Number is’ condition where multiple conditions are available, and to compare to other variables:
But regarding the root of your problem, if you have the Timesheets & Budgets add-on, you can also set reminders for unsubmitted timesheets in the Admin Console’s settings which may help:
So, here’s a suggestion for you to make this available. Is there any chance of implementing them? Or is it only available by paying for it like the timesheet add-on? 
Hi @Mauricio_Donati
If you can use formula custom field, how about the following?
