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How to automate time log based on the total time spent on In Progress alone?

Aldrine Abisheck
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February 3, 2026

When the item is In Progress alone the clock must run. When the item is in hold or Rework or any other status it should not be considered. 

This is in addition to the previous question: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/How-can-I-enforce-a-per-user-limit-of-having-only-one-issue-in/qaq-p/3185329?utm_source=dm&utm_medium=unpaid-social&utm_campaign=P:online*O:community*I:social_share*

4 answers

0 votes
Iryna Komarnitska_SaaSJet_
Atlassian Partner
February 4, 2026

Hi @Aldrine Abisheck ,

In Jira, nothing actually “stops” when work item moves between statuses—everything is continuously tracked and stored in the changelog.

Time in Status, an add-on my team developed, uses that changelog data to generate reports based on how long work items spend in each status.

You can also configure your work calendar to exclude non-working hours, so the results reflect only working time. From there, you can generate a Time in Status report and focus your analysis specifically on the time spent in In Progress.

Знімок екрана 2026-02-04 о 17.57.57.png

Hope you find this useful—and I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.

0 votes
Rahul_RVS
Atlassian Partner
February 3, 2026

Hi @Aldrine Abisheck 

Welcome to the community !!

The best approach would be to track time in status for your issues. You can use Jira Rest API's to build your own custom solution to track time spent in each status, or explore a mktplace app for this requirement, you can try out

Time in Status Reports 

With this app you generate time in each workflow status for multiple issues with multiple filter and grouping options. 

The app supports creating your own working calendar. The time in status calculations will be done based on the calendar settings. Also the app has 20+ reports to meet a variety of use cases.

More details here.

Disclaimer : I am part of the app team for this add-on

 

 

TIS.png

 

0 votes
Petru Simion _Simitech Ltd__
Atlassian Partner
February 3, 2026

Hi @Aldrine Abisheck ,

 

 

If your goal is to understand how long an issue has actually spent in In Progress—even if it was moved in and out of that status multiple times—there’s a straightforward way to do this.

You can use Issue History Reporter for Jira (Work Item History) , an app built by our team.
With the Issue History report, you’ll be able to see:

  • The total time spent in the In Progress status for each issue

  • The number of times the issue transitioned into In Progress

This makes it easy to track only the periods where work was actively happening, regardless of pauses or detours into other statuses.

time_in_status_filtered_result_.png

 


If, however, your workflow uses multiple statuses that all represent “work in progress” (for example: In Progress, Development, QA), and you want to exclude statuses like On Hold or Rework, you can take this a step further by using status groups.

You can create a group called In Progress Group and include only the statuses that should count toward active work time.
Groups can also be defined per issue type, giving you flexibility across different workflows.

Here is an example:

time_in_status_group_in_progress.png

Groups can be created globally by an admin and shared across the organisation, or created by individual users for personal use only.

Once configured, the report will display the total accumulated time spent in the In Progress Group, calculated as the sum of time spent in each included status—while fully excluding anything outside the group.

time_in_status_filtered_result_table_group_.png

 


This way, whether you need pure status-level tracking or a custom definition of “In Progress”, you can measure time accurately and consistently across your issues.

 

You can try Issue History Reporter for Jira (Work Item History) free for 30 days.

 

Regards, 

 

Petru

 

0 votes
Bill Sheboy
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February 3, 2026

Hi @Aldrine Abisheck -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Are you trying to measure time-in-status or working time?

  • For time-in-status, try the built-in reports (e.g., control chart) or the better ones provided by Atlassian Marketplace apps.
  • For working time, try the built-in time-tracking features and reporting, or again check the Atlassian Marketplace for the better time-tracking apps.

 

Kind regards,
Bill

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