The Best Jira Time Tracking Plugins and Apps for Service Companies

What features does Jira time tracking have?

If you already encountered Jira in your career as a manager, you probably have some knowledge about its capabilities. Unfortunately, in this case Jira does not have much to offer. The tool includes: 

• advanced time tracking for individual employees,
• progress bar in a task window,
• ability to generate simple timesheets for individuals and hours spent on a project.

Are they the features I need to log time? 

Of course, from a service company perspective, these features are not enough. That’s because the Jira time tracking module is incapable of storing, analyzing and processing information on wages, costs in a project, capacity, or even resource management in general. As a result, it has no value for project management at all. 

Fortunately for you, Jira can be integrated with other tools. But what features should they have to be the best Jira time tracking plugins? 

What features should an ideal Jira time tracking plugin have? 

If you are a manager or an executive, you probably often sit in front of a screen trying to make sense of all the tracked hours. An ideal Jira time tracking plugin should spare you the pain. That is because it should cover the entire time tracking process: from resource allocation, to project accounting. 

Ideal features for Jira time tracking app

To do that, the best Jira time tracking tools should have: 

• financial information related to worked time and its impact on the entire project (i.e. billable and non-billable hours, costs of work, overheads, etc.)
• analysis based on the information from time tracking, 
• advanced reports, including project progress report, budget report and time tracking report for both individual specialists and the entire project, 
• capacity planning tools based on local calendar with public holidays, 
• time off management.

Of course, many companies only want to focus on a single tool. That is why additional features you should look for include: resource planning, business intelligence, project accounting, project portfolio management and skill management. 

Plugins for Jira software: comparison

Fortunately, Jira service management allows for expanding the tool with add ons and plugins that allow employees to log work and track time (and enjoy additional free time, if the process is quick enough). But let’s not focus on the empty words: let’s see which Jira time tracking plugins or apps really have the features we expect them to have. 

Best Jira time tracking plugins and apps: ranking

Primetric

If you are working for a service company that is only interested in a comprehensive approach to its operations, we have good news for you - Primetric is definitely a choice you should consider. 

The tool  combines time, resource, project and finance management in a single tool, offering a number of advanced tools covering all the processes a service company may have at its sleeve. Time tracking is not an exception here - and it really has much to offer. 

Primetric - time tracking features

In Primetric, you can manage time tracking from both developers’ and managers’ perspective. For example, a manager can use the tool to:

• create and edit invoices for customers, 
• monitor the profitability for people and projects based on wages and fees, for both T&M and Fixed Price projects, 
• create timesheets reports showing both plans and their execution, 
• plan the work in a calendar with public holidays, time offs, and capacity, 
• monitor work progress and create advanced reports based on the data from individual specialists’ timesheets.

Developers can also use Primetric to their advantage. They will particularly benefit from: 

• seamless implementation and integration that requires no specialized knowledge, 
• track time, log work and monitor time spent on Jira projects in their own timesheet,
• automatically filled fields in the time tracking module accelerating the time tracking process, 
• intuitive calendar with current and future assignments for better work organization. 

“I’m a great fan of Primetric’s time offs and time tracking. I can easily manage time off requests in the system and plan work based on the available hours. I can also see all the work I have to do in the foreseeable future.”

Adam P.’s review of Primetric on g2.com

Primetric - other features

The app also offers a variety of other features, including resource planning, business intelligence, project accounting, project portfolio management and skill management, that you may find helpful in your work. 

Sounds like too much to bear? You couldn’t be more wrong. According to the reviews on G2 and Capterra, Primetric excels in its usability and combines all of its features in a seamless and easily understandable way. As a result, many users claim that they have never used a better time tracking tool before. 

“In contrast to other time tracking tools I used before, Primetric automates the time tracking process to some extent. Of course, I need to choose the day I want to report my working hours for, but then the system automatically fills in the number of hours and other repetitive details that I would have to add letter by letter in other tools. It’s a much simpler solution from the user's point of view.”

Adrian O.’s review of Primetric on g2.com

Primetric - summary

Primetric can also be easily integrated with Jira time tracking. Therefore, it does not have to replace the tool altogether - it can simply be used to expand time tracking in Jira with dozens of other interesting features. Thanks to that, Primetric continues to receive glowing reviews on G2, Capterra and Atlassian Marketplace.

Harvest Time Tracking

Harvest is yet another tool capable of being integrated with Jira time tracking and expanding its capabilities for project management purposes. However, the tool may not have everything you look for in such a tool. 

As far as the time tracking itself is concerned, Harvest focuses on the most basic type of time tracking - it simply imports the information on the tasks from Jira and lets its users log their time on it. However, the process is lengthy and quite complicated. As a result, it discouraged numerous uses on both G2 and Capterra. 

“It wasn't easy to integrate into my routine so i often ended up backtracking weeks worth of time.”

Anonymous user review on g2.com

Harvest Time Tracking - time tracking features

Apart from the basic time tracking that allows the employees to log time and work in Jira in the same time, Harvest Time Tracking has a few additional features that supplement its main module. These include: 

• partial capacity management (no time off management included), 
• basic budgeting and invoices (no overheads included), 
• basic time tracking reports (no other reports are available). 

However, even though the features are present in the tool, they are drastically limited and they do not cover the majority of use cases for service companies. 

Harvest Time Tracking - other features

Still, while Harvest has some features that may interest you at first glance, it also has a huge problem that any Jira time tracking user should know about - the tool has enormous issues with integrations. According to Harvest Time Tracking reviews, the majority of customers encountered some problems with them, whether in Jira itself or in particular operating systems.

“I am an experienced JIRA admin and never met a plugin like this. After installation I cannot even find it! No new report in the reports page, not listed in apps directly, I can only find it in managed apps.”

Zoltan Farago’s review on Altassian Marketplace.

Harvest Time Tracking - summary

Judging by all of the above features, Harvest Time Tracking may not be the best choice for those interested in expanding the capabilities of Jira time tracking.

Tempo Timesheets

Tempo Timesheets is another popular alternative to standard Jira time tracking. However, it comes with significant limitations. 

Tempo Timesheets - time tracking features

First of all, Jira Tempo Timesheets focuses on time tracking and analysis only. The tool includes features such as: 

• manual and partially automated time tracking (if user connected its system to a Google/Microsoft calendar, he can log time and track work automatically), 
• timesheets and reports based on the time tracking information, 
• tracking billable and non billable time and creating invoices based on the information about costs and wages, 
• capacity reports for managing both billable hours and free time, 
• information on time offs (no time off management is available). 

However, while this list may seem tempting, that is where Tempo Timesheet advantages end. In fact, the features above may also go unnoticed in the app - many users on G2 claim that the software is unintuitive and some options are hard to find. 

“Tempo TimeSheets can be confusing at times and are not the easiest of tools to manage and administer.”

Sam S., Tempo Timesheet review on g2.com

Tempo Timesheets - other features

The tool has no additional features that could help employees track time in their projects, and the ones that are already in the system are strictly limited to time tracking - you cannot use the tool for project management, resource planning or managing time offs, which also have an impact on time tracking. To make things worse, Tempo is capable of providing these features to the users. However, they require a purchase of additional Tempo software - a price not every service company is willing to pay. 

Last but not least, Tempo Timesheet may encounter some technical issues that affect the tool as a whole. Some customers claim to have problems with particular features in the software after the updates, while others report problems with integration. As a result, Tempo Timesheet received mixed reviews from the public. 

“In one of the latest upgrades, the delete button can be triggered accidentally without any confirmation. I hate that. We have lost several logs due to this functionality.”

Jhony M., Tempo Timesheet review on g2.com

Clockify

Clockify advertises itself as a free Jira time tracking plugin. While this is not entirely the truth (Clockify also has a more advanced paid version), this time tracking app certainly has some time tracking features. But are they enough to fulfill the needs of an average service company? 

Cloclify - time tracking features

Clockify app, whether in its free or paid version, offers a variety of time tracking tools. These include: 

• timesheets with calendar, 
• reports for time tracking, 
• rates, earnings, costs and profits based on the tracked time, 
• project scheduling, 
• basic invoicing. 

This list seems to cover a large chunk of the most popular use cases for the service companies. However, with the wide variety of tools come significant problems. 

Clockify - other features

First of all, many users claim that Clocify has significant problems with its interface. Numerous reviewers found it difficult to use or even locate particular features; others had troubles understanding the software and its capabilities altogether.

“The user interface is a little dull plus the features are very limited. You cannot exactly determine where you are spending your productive work.”

Mustafa A., Clockify review on g2.com

Apart from that, Clockify was designed to be a free tool - therefore, it has smaller income it could spend on advancing its technologies. As a result, its features are very limited and are hardly ever perfected, which did not escape the attention of numerous users. 

Clockify - summary

Last but not least, many users who left their reviews on G2 and Capterra are not happy with Clockify’s integration with Jira. They claim to encounter some synchronization problems that affected their work and disqualified Clockify as a Jira time tracking plugin. 

“Sometimes the synching between Clockify and Jira does not work correctly when editing time.”

Matthew W., Clockify review on g2.com

Everhour

Everhour is another common software choice for companies interested in Jira time tracking plugins. However, does the app really have what it takes to appeal to the service companies? 

Everhour - time tracking features 

Let’s take a look at features Everhour offers for those interested in integrating it with Jira. The software includes:

• time tracking, 
• basic billing and budgeting based on wages, 
• basic reporting, 
• task management (similar to Jira, no general resource management is included), 
• visual planning,
• basic invoicing. 

Everhour - other features

However, as good as this list looks, numerous customers claim that Evehour does not exactly fit their needs. While this tool works well in very small companies, their bigger counterparts had troubles using it for some more advanced calculations or actions. 

“The reporting looks good on the surface but is missing some fundamental functions. For example, we are unable to generate a backlog report directly from EverHour.”

Jon L., Everhour review on G2.com

To add to that, Everhour’s integration with Jira also leaves much to be desired. Users often encounter problems with connections, limited data flow and other problems that may cause the data in the system to be misleading. According to numerous sources, that causes problems in both analysis and using the software in general, not only in integration with Jira.

“It's a little difficult to get other apps to integrate with it. I almost never see my tasks populate when I start typing one out. I really have to finagle the order of what fields I fill out on integration to get it to work.”

Sarah S., Everhour review on g2.com

Want to learn more about time tracking? 

No problem - we have just what you need. We have prepared numerous sources - both related to Jira and the problem of time tracking in general - that can help you track time, log work and improve your time tracker as much as possible. 

Read about: 

• non billable and billable hours that may affect your time tracking reports, 
• resource planning in Jira in general - what else is there to discover? 
• the best apps for Jira timesheets,
• planning and managing capacity, which can affect the number of tracked hours in your company, 
• useful resource leveling strategies, 

or simply visit our blog and find what you need there! 

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