Accurate time tracking is the backbone of efficient project management, payroll processing, and client billing. Whether you’re a freelancer, a small business owner, or part of a large enterprise, logging work hours properly ensures transparency, compliance, and productivity. Jira, being one of the most widely used project management tools, offers built-in time tracking, but it often falls short of what teams really need.
Many teams struggle with Jira’s native time tracking because it lacks detailed reporting, automation, and flexibility. Logging time manually can be time-consuming, prone to human error, and inefficient when tracking billable hours across multiple projects. This is where third-party time log sheet add-ons come in—they enhance Jira’s capabilities, making it easier to track employee work hours, bill clients accurately, and generate insightful reports.
This article dives into the top 10 time log sheet add-ons for Jira, covering their key features, benefits, and how they help teams get an accurate picture of time spent on tasks.
Key Features to Look for in a Jira Time Logging Add-on
Before diving into the top add-ons, let’s go over the must-have features that make a time tracking tool truly effective.
1. Seamless Jira Integration
The best time tracking tools should integrate effortlessly with Jira’s native time tracking fields, allowing users to log hours without switching between platforms.
2. Customizable Timesheets
Not every team tracks time the same way. A good add-on should support weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly timesheet templates, making it easy to adapt to different payroll cycles and reporting needs.
3. Real-Time Tracking & Reporting
Real-time tracking helps teams get a clear view of work hours as they happen, preventing the need for manual entry and reducing inaccuracies in submitted timesheets.
4. Automation Capabilities
Automated tracking reduces human error and administrative work. Look for features like auto-tracking based on task activity, automatic approvals, and notifications for missed time entries.
5. Exporting & Analytics Features
To make informed decisions, teams need detailed reports. The best time tracking software should support exporting timesheet data in multiple formats (CSV, PDF, Excel) and offer analytics dashboards for tracking team progress.
6. User-Friendly UI
A complicated time tracking tool can be counterproductive. The best ones offer intuitive UIs that make it easy to log time, view reports, and track billable hours.
Top 10 Time Log Sheet Add-ons for Jira
#1. ActivityTimeline – The All-in-One Solution for Every Team Size
ActivityTimeline makes time tracking in Jira seamless, giving teams the tools to log, manage, and approve work hours efficiently. Here’s a breakdown of the essential features that make time logging smooth and structured.
Track Timesheets with Ease
The Timesheets module provides a centralized view of logged hours, allowing managers to review and approve timesheets quickly. Users with the necessary permissions—Admins, Managers, Power Team Leads, and Team Leads—can oversee the approval process and ensure accurate time tracking.
Comprehensive Timesheet Views
Different timesheet views help teams track and analyze logged hours more effectively:
- Progress View: Monitor required vs. logged hours, track completeness, and compare planned vs. actual time.
- Timeline View: See color-coded visualizations of users’ logged hours relative to assigned tasks, helping to identify over or under-logging.
- Detailed View: Dive into individual worklogs, edit entries, and review details such as project, issue, time spent, and comments.
Flexible Timesheet Configurations
ActivityTimeline offers multiple ways to customize timesheets based on your workflow.
- Adjustable Date Ranges: Click on the period selector to open the calendar picker and set the timeframe you need.
- Multiple Time Units: Switch between daily, weekly, or monthly views to see a detailed or aggregated overview of logged hours.
- Advanced Filters: Refine data by project, worklog category, or approval status for a clearer picture of logged time.
- Scopes for Advanced Filtering: Choose from Team/People, Project, Epic, Category, or Issue filters to generate precise reports. Multi-select options make it easy to track multiple projects at once.
Customizable Reporting & Dashboards
For streamlined reporting, ActivityTimeline lets users create and manage custom timesheet views:
- Pre-built Templates & Custom Grouping: Group data by any Jira custom field in the left panel.
- Saved Dashboards: Save and access your custom reports anytime under the Timesheet module. Need to share a report? Navigate to 'Configurations' → 'Dashboards' to manage sharing options.
Worklog Panel for Quick Edits
Need to make changes? Click on a worklog entry, and the Worklog Panel appears on the right, allowing edits to Time Spent and Comments. If the approval process is enabled, managers can approve or unapprove worklogs directly from this panel.
Export to Excel for Easy Reporting
Every timesheet view includes an Export to Excel option, generating reports that mirror the web version. Whether tracking user timesheets or project-based reports, exporting makes sharing and analyzing data effortless. This feature makes generating reports for payroll, billing, and other processes a breeze—plus you can export your data easily.
Approval Workflow for Accurate Time Tracking
To maintain data integrity, ActivityTimeline includes a structured Approval Process that locks timesheets once approved. This prevents further edits and ensures accountability.
- Approval Permissions: Admins, Managers, and Team Leads can approve individual timesheets.
- Bulk Approval: Approve multiple timesheets at once for efficiency.
- Approval Tracking: Filter approved vs. unapproved timesheets and track who approved each entry for transparency.
Visual Timeline for Team Workloads
In addition to time tracking features, ActivityTimeline allows for visualizing planned and logged work on a timeline. It gives you a clear view of who’s handling what, making resource management super simple, making it easy to manage workloads and tasks. With bi-directional sync, it keeps Jira’s native time tracking fields updated, so you can always track hours worked, overtime hours, lunch breaks, and time spent on tasks.
Summing up, for teams that need a comprehensive time tracking and resource planning tool, ActivityTimeline is a top choice. It helps teams manage work hours efficiently and provides detailed insights into project progress.
#2. WorklogPRO
WorklogPRO is a Jira time tracking add-on designed to enhance worklog visibility and reporting. It provides teams with more structured worklog management compared to Jira’s native capabilities.
Worklog Organization & Grouping
WorklogPRO focuses on hierarchical worklog grouping, allowing users to structure logged hours by user, project, issue, or custom account categories. This setup helps teams break down time allocation in a more organized manner, especially useful for companies managing multiple clients or internal cost centers.
Custom Worklog Dialog & Attributes
Instead of Jira’s default logging window, WorklogPRO offers a customizable worklog dialog where users can add extra attributes to work entries. This customization is useful for teams that need to attach additional details like cost codes, billing categories, or task types to their logged hours.
Worklog Visualization & Reporting
- Issue-Level Worklogs – A dedicated worklog tab appears in each Jira issue, displaying all logged hours for quick reference.
- Calendar View – Provides a visual timeline of logged hours, making it easier to track work patterns over time.
- Pivot Reports & Charts – Allows teams to generate reports with multiple grouping options to analyze time distribution.
Integration with Jira & Export Options
WorklogPRO integrates with Jira’s worklogDate field, allowing users to retrieve time data via JQL queries for specific periods. It also supports exporting worklogs to Excel, PDF, and CSV for external reporting needs. Additionally, teams can leverage Jira’s REST API to build custom reporting solutions based on WorklogPRO’s data.
While WorklogPRO offers structured reporting and grouping, teams looking for a more visual approach with resource allocation features may explore alternative solutions.
#3. Planyway
Planyway is a time tracking software designed to help teams track employee hours and log work efficiently in Jira. With multiple ways to record hours worked, Planyway provides flexibility for teams managing hourly and salaried employees, shift workers, and those working across various projects.
Time Logging Methods
Planyway offers different ways to keep track of work, ensuring teams can log total hours with minimal effort:
- Manual Entry – Users can manually enter their work hours for each task, specifying the starting date, pay period, and hours spent.
- Timer Functionality – A built-in timer allows employees to automatically calculate their regular hours and overtime hours by starting and stopping time tracking while working.
- Drag-and-Drop Logging – Users can visually log time by dragging tasks onto a timeline, making it easy to track work across multiple projects.
Timesheets and Reporting
Planyway includes reporting features that help teams generate time log templates and export data for payroll and billing purposes:
- Timesheet Templates – Supports weekly timesheet templates, monthly timesheet templates, and daily timesheet templates to organize approved timesheets.
- Analytics & Exporting – Users can create reports to review employee hours, overtime pay, and vacation days, then export them as a PDF template, Excel file, or integrate with Google Sheets.
- Jira Integration – Syncs seamlessly with Jira issues, making it easy to track team member performance and monitor time allocation.
Planyway provides structured time management tools but may not be ideal for teams needing advanced task management, complex log templates, or digital timesheet automation with predefined approval workflows.
#4. Worklogs Time Tracking & Timesheets
Worklogs – Time Tracking and Time Reports is a Jira add-on designed to help teams generate detailed time log sheets and keep track of total hours spent on tasks. It simplifies time tracking templates and enhances timesheet compliance by providing flexible reporting and aggregation options.
Key Features
- Real-Time Time Reports: Teams can generate timesheet templates instantly, categorizing and grouping work hours to analyze time spent on tasks more effectively.
- Flexible Data Grouping: The add-on allows users to group data by weekly timesheet templates, monthly basis, or even custom date ranges. This flexibility ensures accurate tracking of regular hours, overtime hours, and time off, including vacation time and sick days.
- Advanced Filtering Options: Users can track time based on projects, sprints, issue types, and assignees. This makes it easy to generate log templates that align with specific reporting needs, whether on a daily timesheet template or monthly timesheet level.
- CSV Export for Custom Analysis: Worklogs provides an export feature, allowing teams to generate reports in Google Sheets, Excel, or CSV format. This is especially useful for payroll, invoicing, and compliance with labor laws.
- Dashboard Gadget for Instant Insights: The add-on includes a configurable dashboard gadget that displays time-tracking metrics at a glance, helping teams keep track of work distribution across multiple projects.
With simple timesheet templates, hourly rates tracking, and an automated approach to reporting, Worklogs helps teams minimize time-consuming manual data entry. It also ensures that organizations can automatically calculate billable hours, overtime pay, and total pay, making it a valuable solution for businesses managing job sites, remote teams, and shift workers.
#5. Clockwork
Clockwork Automated Time Tracking & Timesheets Pro is a time tracking software for Jira that helps teams track time on issues and generate timesheet templates for reporting. Whether you’re dealing with hourly and salaried employees, juggling multiple projects, or just trying to keep track of work hours, this add-on gives you plenty of options.
What It Does
- Logs Work Automatically – No need to manually enter every second worked. Clockwork automatically calculates time spent on issues based on status updates.
- Customizable Timesheets & Reports – Filter by projects, issue types, labels, or team members. Need a weekly timesheet template or a monthly timesheet? You got it.
- Syncs with Google Calendar – Log time directly from your calendar. No more switching between tools to update your time log sheet.
- Tracks Costs & Hourly Rates – Helps teams manage budgets by keeping an eye on total hours, regular hours, and overtime pay.
- Timesheet Compliance Tools – Set up reminders, lock approved timesheets, and make sure everyone fills in their daily timesheet on time.
If you’re looking for free timesheet templates, Clockwork won’t give you those, but it does help with tracking work hours and total pay so you can stay on top of everything. Whether you’re managing shift workers or tracking vacation time, this tool is built to make time management less of a headache.
#6. Tempo Timesheets
Tempo Timesheets is a popular Jira add-on that helps track time with real-time logging, automated approvals, and integrates with billing and invoicing systems. It also has an API for connecting with payroll systems, making payroll processing easier.
Key Features
- Real-time tracking and automatic approval workflows for timesheets
- Billing and invoicing integrations for accurate client billing
- API support for syncing with external payroll systems
However, it’s not all smooth sailing. It doesn’t sync automatically with Jira’s native worklogs, so switching away from it could be a hassle. Plus, it has limited customization for team management, and you might need extra tools for cost tracking or detailed invoicing.
Overall, it's a solid option, but it might not be the best fit if you're looking for more flexibility or need customer support.
#7. Worklogs - Time Tracking and Time Reports
Worklogs – Time Tracking and Time Reports is a Jira add-on that enables users to monitor and report on the time spent by team members across various Jira issues. It leverages Jira's native time tracking and logs, ensuring that pre-existing time entries are integrated seamlessly upon installation.
Key Features
- Time Tracking: Worklogs allows users to track time spent on issues, projects, epics, subtasks, and sprints. It supports grouping data by day, week, month, or year, providing flexibility in reporting periods. Users can categorize entries by projects and apply various filters to analyze time logs effectively.
- Reporting: The add-on offers customizable reports that can be filtered by date range, projects, users, groups, or Jira filters. Reports can be drilled down to the worklog level for detailed analysis and exported to Excel (xlsx format) for further processing.
- Access Control: Worklogs provides configurable access settings, allowing administrators to restrict access to time tracking data based on user roles or groups, ensuring that sensitive information is appropriately protected.
- Dashboard Integration: The add-on includes configurable dashboard gadgets that display key time tracking metrics, offering at-a-glance insights into team performance and project progress.
It's important to note that while Worklogs integrates with Jira's native time tracking features, it may not offer the same depth of customization and advanced reporting capabilities found in other time tracking solutions. Users seeking more comprehensive features might consider exploring alternative add-ons that provide enhanced functionalities tailored to diverse time tracking and reporting needs.
Jira Timesheet Reports and Gadgets
If your team’s all about custom dashboards, Jira has a ton of options to boost your reporting game. With features like JQL-based filtering, custom timesheet templates, and easy exports, you can make sure your timesheet reports are on point for payroll or client billing.
Using Jira Query Language (JQL), you can search for issues assigned to specific team members and track their work in more detail. For example, you can run a JQL query like this:
worklogDate >= -5d
This will pull up all issues where users have logged time within the past 5 days. You can also filter by project, assignee, and time range to get exactly what you need.
Once you’ve set up your filters, Jira gives you the total time logged for each issue. You can even export that data into Excel for further use.
Why ActivityTimeline Stands Out
Among all the add-ons, ActivityTimeline stands out because it offers a complete package of time tracking, resource management, and reporting in a single platform.
Benefits of ActivityTimeline
- Fully synced with Jira’s native fields for seamless data flow, so everything stays up to date without extra effort.
- Designed for teams of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises, making it flexible for any organization.
- Offers advanced customization for detailed time analysis, so you can tailor reports and views to your exact needs.
- Provides automated reporting and export options, which help you make better decisions faster without the hassle of manual work.
ActivityTimeline truly covers all the bases, making it the go-to solution for teams that need a comprehensive tool for time tracking and resource management.
Conclusion
Time tracking is crucial for project progress, payroll processing, and client billing. Jira’s native tracking lacks automation and detailed reporting, which is why teams turn to third-party time log sheet add-ons.
Whether you need real-time tracking, advanced reporting, or automation, there’s a Jira add-on for every workflow. ActivityTimeline remains one of the best choices for its comprehensive feature set, user-friendly UI, and seamless integration with Jira.
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