My Timesheet Overview
- Nisha Shantilal
My Timesheet page is a single point of logging time across all issues in Jira that you are working on. The time entry page allows for different duration views, bulk time entry, approval submission, entry towards non-project tasks, etc. This article gives an overview of the features of the time entry page.
Features
Click on My Timesheet from the top navigation bar
The default page loads with the weekly view (current week), issues list (key and summary) grouped by project name and non-project tasks as defined by the administrator
the default issues list includes issues with time logged on them either in the current week or the week prior
all non-project tasks defined by the administrator will be loaded by default regardless of time logged against them
Include issues assigned to me: By clicking this checkbox, the issues list starts showing all the issues assigned to the logged in user that have been updated in the last 30 days
Some issues may not be listed as no time have been logged against them in the current week or the week prior
Add issues: If specific issues need to be added that aren’t listed, then using this button, you can add more issues. On clicking ‘Add Issues’ button, the Search Issues screen pops up which allows easy selection of issues.
Timesheet Views and Date Picker: You can view the timesheet in weekly, bi-weekly and monthly formats. You can also transition to previous and future date ranges by using the date picker or using the angle arrows.
Delete, Lock and Pin icons on the issues list: Different icons appear next to the issue keys depending upon the settings that been configured by the admin
Delete icon - Issues that don't have any time logged against them in the current time period can be removed from the timesheet by clicking the delete icon. This is useful if you have selected ‘Include Issues assigned to me’ but are not working on everything in the list. Issues can be added back anytime using the ‘Add Issues’ button
Lock icon - This icon appears next to issue keys for which time entry has been disabled by the admin via the Time Tracking settings. Time entry can be disabled for issues in certain statuses and for issues with certain dates in the past. Locked issues can also be deleted from the timesheet. For details on time tracking settings, please click here
Pin icon - This icon appears next to issue keys that have been added to the all users timesheet by the admin via the Time Tracking settings. For details on time tracking settings, please click here
Issues List Filters: The top right of the My Timesheet page has three filter drop-downs based on Projects, Issue Types and Status Categories. These filters allow the user to narrow down the list of issues for easier time entry. The list is populated with all Jira projects, all issue types and the status categories. By default, none of the filters are applied. After selecting a filter, ‘Apply Filter’ button will appear; clicking on it will apply the filter
Issues with time logged for the current period and last week will not be filtered
User-Specific Settings: The top right corner of the My Timesheet page has a ‘Settings’ drop-down with three options
Week start day: If a user has different working days then it can be defined by clicking the ‘Change’ link. By default, the week start day is set as Monday
Do not show locked issues: This option hides all the locked issues from the timesheet, which have no time entry against them. After the option is clicked, the option changes to ‘Show locked issues’. If there are locked issues on the timesheet page a message appears with an icon as shown below. If there is time logged against locked issues, then the issue will not be hidden and the message will say 'Some locked issues are still shown, since they have time logged for the selected period'
Add or remove columns: Selecting this will open a dialog box (shown on left below) using which user can select additional columns to be displayed on the timesheet page on the right of the ‘Summary’ Column (shown on right below)
Entering Time
The timeline (weekly, bi-weekly or monthly) will show up on the right of the issues list. Users can enter time in box for each day by clicking in the corresponding box
The dialog box shown below opens up when the box is clicked. The details within the box (description, remaining estimate, etc.) are configurable by the admin (defined in Administration → Time Tracking Settings)
The details within the box can also contain worklog attributes like billable/non-billable, contractor/employee, etc. For details on worklog attributes, please click here
The user can save the entry by clicking Save and Close button or clicking outside the box
Multiple Worklogs
The add-on also allows for adding multiple worklogs for the same day and same issue. Click on the existing entry and then click on ‘Add another worklog’ button (screenshot on the left below); enter details and click ‘Save and close’. The screenshot on the right below shows how multiple worklogs are shown on the screen
Bulk Entry of Time
Bulk entry provides an easy way to do time entry for a period. It can also be used to delete multiple worklogs in one go. The bulk entry dialog box opens up on clicking the ‘+' sign in the “Bulk’ column for each issue.
The bulk entry feature provides the following 3 options
Date Range: User can choose the entire period selected in the main date range selector or a subset of days in the selected days. For example, if a weekly view is selected, bulk entry can only be done for the selected week; if a monthly view is selected, bulk entry can be done for the entire month or a subset of the selected month
Days to exclude: User can choose to exclude specific days if required for time entry. Default days that are selected for exclusion are 2 weekend days depending on user’s preference of start of week. For example, if start of week is marked as Tuesday, then weekend defaults to Sunday and Monday
Override existing: Selecting this box, overrides current entries. If multiple worklogs have been created, only the first one will get overridden
This functionality can be used to delete multiple entries as well. If user enters 0m as input and selects the override option, all entries will be deleted
The bulk update box saves only on pressing save and close, not if user clicks out of the box, as is for the rest of the timesheet.
The bulk update option is not available for locked issues
Locked/Disabled Time Entry
The user’s timesheet may be locked or disabled in the following scenarios
Time Entry has been disabled for the previous months: Under Time Tracking settings, if the Jira admin has defined a particular amount of time after which time entry for last month will not be allowed, then the timesheet will be greyed out as shown below
User has submitted timesheet for approval and approval is pending: If timesheet approval is enabled and user has submitted the timesheet for approval, then the time entry will be locked as shown below (yellow color) until either the timesheet is approved or the user withdraws timesheet submission
User’s timesheet is approved: If the timesheet is approved, then the time entry will be locked as shown below (green color)
Entering time from Jira Issue page
Users can also log time on Jira issues via the issue page itself. This helps if the user is updating the issue and wants to log time against from the issue page.
To enable the app on the issue page, select Timesheets for Jira
Once app is loaded on the issue page, click ‘Log Time’ to open an interface similar to My Timesheet page. The cursor will default to current date for the issue the user is on. Click on ‘Close’ button (top right of the dialog box) to go back to the issue
The app on the issue page shows time logged by the current user, total time logged on the issue by all users and total time logged including sub-tasks, if any. It also shows remaining and estimated time
The second section shows worklog details of the logged in user by default. The user can click on ‘Show all work logs’ to see all the entries on this issue
The user can hide the app from the issues page by hovering Timesheets for JIRA and then clicking ‘hide’
Log Time using Timers
Start timer button can automatically calculate the time taken to complete a work item. The user can click start timer button when they start to work on the issue and then ‘Stop Timer’ button after they have completed the work. It will then calculate the time you took to finish and open the Time Entry interface for the user to save the entry for the current day. User can also modify the entry at that point, if needed
Submitting Time for Approval
The add-on allows for setting up timesheet approval workflows and once it is setup, users can submit their timesheets for approval. For additional details please click here.
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