Customizing your time report in Worklogs

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Efficient time tracking and accurate reporting are essential for a good project management workflow. There is no better way to achieve this than by preparing a time report tailored to your specific needs. In this article, you will learn about you a variety of customization options that Worklogs - Time Tracking and Time Reports app offers. These options allow you to create your own, personalized timesheet, so you can have a detailed insight into how you spend your time.

Time unit customization

Time Unit Customization is a great solution whenever you need an alternative to the Jira default time units. You can choose different units such as hours, hours/minutes, days, weeks, or months (where 1 month equals 4 weeks).

For example, the time logged as 4 days, 2 hours, and 30 minutes could also be displayed as:

Jira Default: 4d 2h 30m

Hours: 34.5h

Hours/Minutes: 34h 30m

Days: 4.31d

Weeks: 0.86w

Months: 0.22mo

Imagine a freelancer who bills their clients hourly. They track every hour spent on client projects to ensure accurate billing. By selecting the time unit as 'hours' they can create detailed time reports that will serve as a basis for generating client invoices. Now the billing process is just more convenient and it’s also easy to maintain transparency with clients.

On the other hand, there are long-term projects when a broader overview of time allocation is needed. Then, whenever the manager wants to create a time report, the best way to go might be to use “months” as the time unit, where data over a longer period of time can be presented. This view will assist in assessing overall progress, identifying trends, and planning future phases of the project based on historical data.

Timezone handling

In a global team, time logged from different time zones can become a problem. Worklogs allow you to select the timezone for displaying logged time. Thanks to that, time logs stay consistent and accurate, regardless of where your team members are located.

The app offers 3 options of time zone configuration:

1. User’s timezone (default, displays logged hours using the time zone of the user that logged the time).

This one is best to use when:

• each team member needs to see their logged hours in their own local time zone.

• It’s important for users to manage their schedules and work hours based on their local time zone.

• Team members from different time zones work independently and the local time context is more relevant for their reporting.

2. My timezone (displays logged hours using your own timezone).

You could use this setting when:

• you’re about to view different team members’ work logs and you want to see them converted to your local time. This can make planning and coordinating different activities easier.

• You need to synchronize meetings, deadlines, or activities based on your time zone.

3. Jira timezone (displays logged hours using your Jira instance’s time zone).

You might consider using this one when:

• your organization operates based on a standard Jira time zone, and you need a consistent reference for all logged hours.

• All the reports must have a uniform time reference.

Displaying non-working days

Worklogs offer the option to hide non-working days when using the 'Days' period grouping. You can configure the app to hide these days entirely or only if no time has been logged there. This is the feature to go for whenever you want to focus on productive days, without obstructing the view.

Totals and summary

Being aware of how much time you spend on your tasks overall is crucial for gaining an overview of your performance. Worklogs will show you the sum of your logged time. Depending on the filters you choose, the app can display the total time for example for specific issues, issue types, users, or projects. Also, at the bottom of your Worklogs table, there will be a summary - an overview of the total logged time within the given timeframe and filter criteria.

It’s your choice whether you want the totals and summary to be shown or not. For instance, if there’s a lot of data, displaying totals and summary can provide a complete picture of the logged time, without the need to count each time log separately. 

Grouping multi-select values

Fields like 'Labels' in Jira can have multiple values. For example, if a single Jira issue has several labels such as ‘bug’, ‘urgent’, and ‘frontend’, Worklogs give you the flexibility to handle that in two ways. 

1. Show grouped: this one displays the time logged for tickets with exactly the same set of labels.  For example, it will show the total time logged for all tickets that have the labels ‘bug’, ‘urgent’, and ‘frontend’ together.

2. Show each value separately: choose this option, if you are interested in seeing the total time logged for tickets with a specific label, regardless of what other labels they might have. For example, if you want to see the total time logged for all tickets that have the ‘bug’ label, no matter if they also have other labels like ‘urgent’ or ‘frontend’.  

Subtasks summation

Depending on whether you strive for a clearer picture of the overall time spent without getting bogged down in the details of individual subtasks, or you would like to see a very detailed time report including subtasks, Worklogs give you both options:

Count separately: With this option, time logged into subtasks will be displayed separately.

Sum: the time logged into subtasks will be included in the parent ticket and not shown separately.

 

Saving different versions of reports 

You can create various reports and save them. They will be visible only to you, but you can share them by sharing the link to your Worklogs table.

You can create multiple versions of reports using available filters (‘Project or Filter’, ‘User or Group’, ‘Sprint’, ‘Period grouping’ ‘Categorize by’, ‘Group by’, ‘Secondary Grouping’) and selecting a time period. You can either set a date range of your choice or choose one of the suggestions: current week, current month, current year, today, previous week, previous month, previous 3 months, current quarter, or previous quarter.

If you have a most popular report, you can select it as a default one on the ‘Manage reports’ page. Then, this report will load automatically every time you open your Worklogs page. 

 

Exporting your timesheet

Whenever you need someone else (for example a client or a manager) to see your timesheet, you can use the export function. It gives you the option to customize your time report and share it. 

Customizing totals in the exported file

To make the exported timesheet better suit your needs, you can choose which totals should be included in it:

• The total for all entries - it will contain the sum of all time logs for the selected period.

• The sub totals - they will be calculated for the data described by category, grouping, and secondary grouping filters. 

When you select both, the exported XLSX report will exactly match your Worklogs table.

Selecting fields for the exported file

In the ‘Select fields included in the exported file’ section, you can specify which fields to include in the report. By default, the user, time spent, and issue key fields are selected, but you can choose additional fields to include or select one field to sort the data by.

Summary

Worklogs app offers numerous options to ensure your time tracking data is presented exactly as you want it. From choosing the right time units and handling different time zones to managing the display of non-working days, totals, and summaries, you can adjust your time report so it perfectly suits your needs. If that sounds like something that would come in handy, you can book a demo session with one of our specialists and see how these options work in practice!