Invested Hours is the total active hours the team or member committed across all items they touched in the period — completed or otherwise. It's the actual-side number that pairs with Estimated Hours.
What it measures
Sum of logged or active-state time invested in items during the period, attributed to the member or team.
How Leanmote calculates it
invested_hours = sum(time_logged_or_active_in_period) per member or team
Source is configurable — typically Working Time, but can use logged work hours from Jira/Linear/ClickUp when available.
Counts only time inside the selected period, not lifetime time on the items.
How to interpret it
Pair with Estimated Hours to see estimate accuracy.
Pair with Throughput for a rough productivity rate (hours per item).
Sharp drops can indicate PTO or context shift; rises can indicate overload or "crunch" weeks. Investigate, don't react.
What to do about it
Use Invested Hours as a capacity input, not a target. Teams that aim to maximize this number burn out.
If Invested Hours is climbing but Throughput isn't, work is getting harder or more wasteful — investigate cause.
Related metrics
Estimated Hours
Estimated vs Executed
Working Time
Throughput