⏱️ Time Tracking in Jira: The Ultimate ☑️ Checklist for 2025

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Time tracking is one of those Jira features that can look simple on the surface — but in practice, it touches almost every part of your workflow. Estimates, reports, permissions, data privacy, remote work rules: all of this depends on how your team sets up and maintains work logs.

To make things easier, here’s a comprehensive checklist for Jira time tracking in 2025. This isn’t a how-to guide with long explanations. Instead, treat it as a reminder list: go through it with your team, confirm what’s already in place, and note what still needs attention.

🔧 Jira Configuration

• ☑️ Enable time tracking in project settings

• ☑️ Check global Jira settings → Time Tracking (units, format)

• ☑️ Set working days & hours in Jira system settings

• ☑️ Verify correct time zones for all users

• ☑️ Configure workload schemes — define expected working hours per user or group

• ☑️ Configure holiday schemes and days off and link them with workload schemes to ensure accurate capacity planning

👥 Permissions & Roles

• ☑️ Ensure users have Work On Issues permission

• ☑️ Set Edit Own Worklogs and Delete Own Worklogs rights

• ☑️ Limit Edit All Worklogs and Delete All Worklogs to admins/leads

• ☑️ Define who tracks, who reviews, and who analyzes time

⏱ Logging Rules

• ☑️ Agree on a team-wide logging rule (when & how to log). Should time be tracked only with timers? Should the team log time manually after each task is done or at the end of the week?

• ☑️ Define level of detail (log per sub-task vs per epic)

• ☑️ Decide whether to add comments to each work log and agree on the comment format

• ☑️ Align on rounding rules (exact vs rounded time)

• ☑️ Decide how to handle parallel work (logging time on multiple issues at once)

• ☑️ Set up reminders for daily/weekly logging. That could be automated Slack reminder from a bot, for example.

• ☑️ Define how to log overtime (usually higher rates are applied)

• ☑️ Define time approvals process

• ☑️ Define the policy for closing old time periods

📂 Work Log Categories

• ☑️ Define categories (billable, non-billable, meetings, support, R&D, etc.)

• ☑️ Add custom fields to work logs if needed (e.g. client, cost center)

• ☑️ Standardize billable vs internal logging

• ☑️ Track additional metrics (productive vs overhead time)

🚀 Agile Usage

• ☑️ Use JQL filters like sprint in openSprints() for sprint-based reports

• ☑️ Filter by project, epic, or assignee to keep reports focused

• ☑️ Align time tracking with estimation practices (story points vs hours) and clarify how planned time relates to logged time

• ☑️ Ensure logged time doesn’t exceed original estimates (if required)

• ☑️ Add a rule to your Definition of Done: log all remaining work before closing an issue

• ☑️ For Kanban teams: use worklogs to monitor WIP and throughput

📊 Reporting

• ☑️ Review Jira’s built-in Time Tracking and Worklog reports

• ☑️ Add dashboard gadgets for visibility (filter results, workload pie chart)

• ☑️ Use advanced JQL filters for custom reports (by team, project, or sprint)

• ☑️ Export work logs to Excel or BI tools if needed

• ☑️ Regularly check for missing or inconsistent work logs via reporting

• ☑️ If standard Jira reports aren’t enough, explore advanced reporting apps from the Marketplace — there are plenty of options, including JetTime, but also many others depending on your needs

• ☑️ For SLA tracking, consider Marketplace apps that measure time in status — this requires a different approach than traditional work logs

✅ Data Quality

• ☑️ Weekly: check for issues without work logs

• ☑️ Sprint-end: compare logged vs estimated time

• ☑️ Validate that tasks aren’t closed without work logs

• ☑️ Use reports to spot anomalies (suspiciously high or low entries)

• ☑️ Review overtime logs separately to identify risks of overwork

🛡 Compliance & Governance

• ☑️ Control who can view and edit work logs

• ☑️ Verify data residency compliance (EU, US, AU, etc.)

• ☑️ Use privacy-first Runs on Atlassian Forge apps (all data stays inside Jira) for maximum security and privacy — JetTime was created specifically for this use case

• ☑️ Keep audit trails: who logged, changed, or deleted time

• ☑️ Ensure integrations with third-party systems don’t duplicate or leak work logs

• ☑️ Document your internal policy on how time tracking should be used and reviewed

🌍 Team Practices

• ☑️ Do short weekly reviews of logged time

• ☑️ Include time tracking quality in retrospectives

• ☑️ Clarify team responsibility: who checks accuracy, who resolves gaps

• ☑️ Provide on-boarding for new hires on why and how to log time

• ☑️ Define and communicate clear rules for tracking sick days and leaves (whether to log them in Jira, separate system, or via special categories)

• ☑️ Visualize time tracking data for transparency (burn-downs, workload distribution, categories)

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Wrapping Up

Time tracking in Jira is not just about logging hours — it’s about building trust in your team’s data. A reliable setup ensures better reporting, smoother sprint planning, and fewer surprises in project delivery.

If you want to take this to the next level, try JetTime — a privacy-first time tracking app for Jira Cloud. Being Runs on Atlassian, it respects your Jira data residency settings and never stores data outside of Jira. JetTime gives you timers, categories, custom fields and metrics, and powerful reports — everything your team needs to make time tracking work without compromising privacy:

👉 JetTime on the Atlassian Marketplace

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💬 What Did We Miss?

This checklist is meant to cover all the essentials, but time tracking practices evolve quickly. If your team follows additional rules or uses different approaches — drop a comment 👇 below. We’ll be happy to update this article with more best practices!

[Anton from JetHeads_io]

Time tracking practices differ a lot between teams — that’s why we wanted this to be a “living checklist”.

If your team uses other rules or approaches (for example around capacity planning or leave policies), drop a note below we’d love to expand the list with community input 🤲