I find that column view summaries do not display if org-agenda-overriding-header is set.
Steps to replicate: emacs -Q -l ~/minimal.el Where minimal.el contains... --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- (add-to-list 'load-path "~/org-mode/lisp/") (add-to-list 'load-path "~/org-mode/contrib/lisp/") (require 'org) (setq org-agenda-files '("~/test.org")) (setq org-columns-default-format "%40ITEM(Task) %8Effort(Estimate){:} %8CLOCKSUM %20SCHEDULED %20DEADLINE %20TIMESTAMP") (setq org-agenda-custom-commands '(("o" todo "TODO" ((org-agenda-overriding-header "Now"))))) --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- ...and ~/test.org contains... --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- * TODO Buy groceries SCHEDULED: <2017-01-16 Mon> :PROPERTIES: :Effort: 0:10 :END: [2017-01-16 Mon 15:11] * TODO Mow lawn SCHEDULED: <2017-01-16 Mon> [2017-01-16 Mon 15:11] * TODO Clean house SCHEDULED: <2017-01-16 Mon> [2017-01-16 Mon 15:11] --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8--- When calling column view, the overlay summary line with total effort estimates is missing. I ran a git bisect and determined that this bug was introduced with commit 279902ca4da4fe5f0ceff801a3aab51b942b42b7 (Feb. 14, 2016). Versions of org before this correctly display the summary line. Best, Matt