Accurate tracking of billable hours is crucial for maximising profitability in service-oriented organisations.
Unfortunately, JIRA does not provide all the additional functionality that an organization needs to accurately track hours and bill clients. That is why the solution is found in the Atlassian marketplace where a number of time-tracking apps are readily available at different functionality levels and price points. The question then becomes which one to choose and how to effectively differentiate between the available options.
This comparative review will look at five popular time-trackers available on Atlassian. We will compare them side-by-side for important functionality as well pricing options for smaller and bigger teams. We will also look over some questions that your organisation needs to ask before choosing a time-tracking add-on.
Questions to Ask
When searching for a Jira time-tracking app, here are 8 essential questions to ask:
Will time-tracking be quick and easy for team members to do?
It is important that time-tracking is intuitive, quick and easy for team members to do as this will increase compliance and ensure you get timely and accurate time tracking done on a regular basis.
Will team members be able to mark their hours as either billable or non-billable in a quick and easy fashion?
Your organisation needs to catch all billable hours in a reliable way. To do this, it is important that you have the functionality within your time-tracker to mark hours as either billable or non-billable immediately.
Will it be easy for team members to log hours against a particular client/project/account?
This is particularly important when your team members are working on multiple client projects, as is usually the case. Logging hours against the correct account is crucial for accurate invoicing and billing purposes.
Will team members be able to log non-work time such as vacations, PTO, overtime, sick leave, admin, meetings etc.?
Being able to log time not spent on work tasks will give you visibility over whether teams and individuals spend their time correctly, whether there are missing hours and whether the hours spent are spent in the most efficient way. Having a detailed overview of time spent at a glance is a powerful tool for managing teams productivity better. In turn, this leads to increased billability and budget utilisation and by extension it maximises profit.
Can we track if the invoiced work was done in an efficient way?
When you have team members working on clients projects, you want to make sure you are invoicing accurately and that time is spent efficiently. Also, you want to be able to keep an eye out for abnormalities. Did a ticket take longer than estimated / necessary? Was the time spent reasonable? Having an add-on with good reporting options will help you keep track of efficiency, ensure clients are billed correctly and enable you to troubleshoot when needed.
Can we track missing hours that people forgot to log?
Even the easiest, most intuitive time-tracking process will leave gaps for error when team members are busy or simply forget to log worked hours. This is why you want your chosen Atlassian app to enable them to log forgotten hours easily.
Can we track if billable hours were missed to be invoiced?
Report that shows one column logged hours, billable hours, and a column of invoiced hours. If you do invoicing from an external system it’s hard to feed into it. Mark worklogs as invoiced manually within the add-on.
Can we track teams total utilization and billable utiliztion rate?
Team billable utilization rate is a percentage calculated by dividing the number of billable (direct) hours by the total amount of hours worked. It is a sign of organisational health and ideally you’d want it to be between 70% and 80%. Having a clear overview of your teams’ billable utilization rate will help you manage their productivity better and spot problem areas early.
Is it possible for users to submit timesheets for approval to their managers and team leaders?
Some Jira time-tracking add-ons offer the possibility for team members to submit timesheets for approvals to their managers so information can be double-checked and errors caught more efficiently. If this is something important to your work process, look for a solution that offers it.
Top 5 Jira Time-Tracking Apps - A Comparison Table
Now that we’ve discussed what important functionalities a truly reliable Jira time-tracking app should cover, we’ve plotted our top 5 picks against them in the below table, along with their pricing information. This will help you make a more informed decision on which add-ons are worth trying and most likely to fit your unique needs. Here are a few words for each solution:
Pros: Tempo is probably the best known and most popular Jira time tracking app. It has extensive functionality and a sleek UI.
Cons: It comes at a higher price point so if budget is a consideration, there may be good alternatives available if you don’t need to use all of the extra features of Tempo.Approval mechanism allows only one Approver not multiples
Pros: Timescale is a relatively new addition to the market. It has proven itself as a reliable and cost-effective alternative to Tempo. It is packed with functionality, constantly updated, yet affordable for large and small teams alike. It has a true focus on service based organization, and reporting on billable hours and clients
Cons: As a new player there are still some missing extra fine tune configurations
Pros: Employee profiles, time tracking, timesheets, leaves, holidays, billing rates, costs, and clients in one.
Cons: There is no time table representation of the time logged. That gives additional overview when user logs their time.
Pros: Flexible time tracking options - automatic, clocked and manual
Cons: No Timesheet Approval mechanism
Pros: Manages Time Tracking and Resource Planning in one. A lot of reporting
Cons: A bit of outdated UI/UX
Functionality |
Tempo Timesheets |
Timescale |
TeamPlanner |
Clockwork |
Activity Timeline |
Quick and easy time tracking |
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Billable and non-billable hours tracking and reports |
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worklog attributes alternative available |
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Time-tracking and reporting against Accounts/Clients |
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worklog attributes alternative available |
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Team billable utilization % reporting |
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Tracking time on non-JIRA tickets/issues (other activities) |
Using Jira Issues |
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Using Jira issues |
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Timesheet Approval Mechanism |
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Teams Timesheets and adding missing hours |
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External Calendar Integration |
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Price for up to 10 users (monthly) |
paid |
free |
free |
free |
paid |
Price for 50 users (monthly) |
226$ |
75$ |
75$ |
60$ |
125$ |
Price for 200 users (monthly) |
771$ |
240$ |
225$ |
220$ |
425$ |
*Prices are taken for Jan of 2025
In conclusion
We hope this comparison review has helped you think more in-depth about the features and functionality you need in a time-tracking Jira app to meet your organisation’s needs. A reliable time-tracking tool can help you bill clients accurately, expedite the invoicing process, enable your teams to track time quickly and efficiently and allow you better productivity management and visibility over team and project health. A superior reporting ability will provide you with a much-needed overview of how, where and how efficiently time is spent across your teams and organisation.
Miron Ivano _Timescale_
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