The easy way to compliant time tracking with Jira

[#1]

Is Jira a good solution for time management and tracking?

Yes, it is! 💥

Jira ships with the basic ability to track time using worklogs on individual issues. You can even view the cumulated time spent on issues in the issue view and in gadgets. By combining the worklogs with time estimates and aggregating the data in reports, you could even say that Jira is a low-level time management tool. So why maintain yet another tool and solution for time management and causing extra work and risking friction?

There are many reasons to track time in general and in Jira specifically:

• It's essential for managing all types of projects and their deadlines.
• It helps with making predictions about the completion of individual tasks.
• It facilitates you to improve efficiency because what is not measured cannot be improved.

For many teams, the built-in functionality might suffice, but definitely not for most. If you take time tracking seriously, as we do, you have probably extended Jira with Tempo Timesheets long ago.

Let's tell you why Tempo Timesheets is the go-to solution for tracking and planning time and why you should combine it with our new app Timesheet Check to turn Jira into a powerful time management suite.

How can you enhance Jira's time tracking capabilities?

Handy, but limited. That's how you can summarize Jira's built-in time tracking. For that reason, various third-party apps enhance its functionality and allow you to track, manage and report on time in a much more convenient way.

Tempo Timesheets is our absolute favorite app with all the bells and whistles to make your time tracking experience as easy and rewarding as possible. It can get you pretty much anywhere you need to go, whether you need to bill clients, gain insights, or track capitalized and operational expenses.

So what does it really help you with?

• Logging time - there are multiple ways to track and log time so everyone can find a way that suits them. From automated time tracking to Google and Microsoft calendar integration to an integrated start/stop tracker that auto-populates logs.
• Reporting on time - Built powerful reports and see time logged for issues, projects, teams, users, accounts, or even custom Jira filters.
• Organizing your organization - Mimick your organizational structure through Tempo Teams to collect worklog data as needed.
• Billing your customers - use Tempo Accounts to gather your customers’ worklog data and easily track all billable times for invoicing.
• Preventing data inaccuracies to ensure accurate reporting - Implement period approvals and add another layer of accuracy to your timesheets through a review process. This is particularly useful for auditing and payroll purposes.

Now that you got all your time data in Jira and the next step is to make sure that you're complying with any laws, regulations, or company guidelines.

How can you make sure your time tracking complies with regulations?

That's precisely where Timesheet Check for Jira comes into play. Our most recently launched app saves you the trouble of manually checking timesheets with three measures:

• Timesheet Check is deeply integrated with Tempo Timesheets to access and validate worklogs and metadata, such as periods and Tempo teams.
• Rules that can be run against selected timesheets include the business logic or the checks. Timesheet Check already ships with a set of preset rules like length of working day and daily rest periods, but setting them up is done in minutes and requires only little information.
• Reports bring rules and selected timesheets together for validation and provide clear feedback on any rule violations. On top of that, you get a dedicated permission management to ensure that only the right people have access to the right reports.

How to check timesheets with Timesheet Check for Jira

It only takes 3 small steps to set Timesheet Check up and check your first timesheets!

1. Create rules in Timesheet Check that map to your regulations

Pick one of the preset rules for a quick start or easily set up new rules. Configuration is straightforward and will feel like a walk in the park.
In our example, we want to check that users have not worked more than 10 hours on any given day.

2. Bundle your rules in reports and select the timesheets you want to check

The next step is to create your first report. Select the rules you want to run, select the timesheets (from users or Tempo Teams) to run them against, and define who will have access to the report.

3. Run your report

Now you're ready to find out how well your teams maintain their timesheets. An important point is that Timesheet Check is big on data privacy.

To ensure complete and correct reporting, Timesheet Check works independently of all Jira and Tempo permissions and issue security. If a user cannot access a timesheet because of lacking permissions, the timesheet will still be checked when running a report! However, only the results of the check against the configured rules and no detailed worklog information will be shown to the user running the report.

We have already mentioned laws, regulations and guidelines many times. So what are the demands on your time tracking?

What are common regulations for time tracking?

There are many, that's for sure.  In the European Union, member states and employers must create a system measuring the daily working time that is

• objective
• reliable
• and accessible

This includes the entire ­span of daily working time and not only overtime! The same applies to Australia or the US, where businesses must track time for all employees. You must even keep those records for multiple years!

Depending on where your organization is located, different rules may apply. But yet another common ground is the obligation to have a system in place to ensure that employees get their obligatory rest periods. Yep, there's a lot to consider.
To give you some examples, let's have a look at some EU regulations and how they have been translated into German laws (and we Germans love regulations and laws...): 

• You must not more work than 48 hours per week on average
• Employees must not exceed the maximum allowed daily working time
• You need at least 11 consecutive hours of daily rest from work
• If you work more than 6 hours a day, you must take a break of at least 15 minutes

Since member states can further refine EU regulations on a national level, a single regulation might have many flavors. A nightmare for multinational companies. But not anymore! You can customize rules in Timesheet Check to map your exact requirements, regulations, or even just internal guidelines such as:

• Check that no one has recorded time on a rest day or holiday.
• Check that the entries in the timesheet do not overlap.

Upgrade your time tracking experience in Jira

Combining Jira, Tempo Timesheets, and Timesheet Check will turn your Jira site into a true powerhouse for time management. Your admin team, or anyone who has to log work in Jira, will love it. 

Find Timesheet Check for Jira on the Atlassian Marketplace and visit our blog for more content about how to get the most out of your Atlassian tools.

[Christina Braun]

This is exactly what we are looking for! Unfortunately the link to the app seems not to work anymore and I did not find the app in the store. Where can I find it? :-)

Thanks!
Christina

[Max Foerster - K15t]

Hey @Christina Braun

As far as I know, the product has been discontinued by Decadis and is no longer available on the Atlassian Marketplace. Looking at their linked documentation, it is listed as a "deprecated app". I'm really sorry!

Best, Max