If you are using ictime the first time, this chapter of our documentation should help you to understand some concepts of ictime. However, you do not need to perform all these steps in this order and can do and modify settings at any time.

1. General Configuration

As a first step, review the general settings for ictime and decide if the default configuration is okay for you (most ictime features are enabled). If you decide to deactivate features, you can skip some of the following steps.

Navigate to the Add-ons section in the JIRA administration and go to "Manage add-ons". Select ictime in the list of add-ons and click on the "Configure" button. Alternatively, use the ictime menu in the JIRA navigation bar, click on "Administration" and then on "General Configuration".

Make the changes you need and save.

2.Disable JIRA's "Log Work" Screen

ictime adds it's own, separate "Log Work (ictime)" dialogue, in addition to the existing one from JIRA. In order to avoid confusion arising from having two different screens to log work - one from ictime, one from JIRA - you can proceed like described by Atlassian here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=715129243. You can do technically the same via the following two options on the general configuration screen of ictime (see General Configuration):

We recommend that you disable/hide JIRA's "Log Work" action as well as JIRA's "Work Log" tab.

3. Administration

All administration & configuration options of ictime that are used more frequently are accesible via the "Administration" link in the ictime menu in the JIRA navigation bar (you do not have to switch to JIRA administration mode).

ictime's administration section is divided into a couple of subitems that are described in the following chapters:

Permissions

You find the permissions in the ictime administration menu:

ictime permissions are configured based on JIRA groups. ictime ships with a default permission setup that grants members of the jira-administrators group full access to all ictime features and gives members of the jira-developers group access to a few features like timesheets etc. You should check if the initial permission setup has been automatically performed (= as member of the "jira-administrators" group, you can see all ictime navigation items), and if yes, review the permission setup and change it according to your needs.

Activity Types

Activity types are an (optional) feature to further classify your work logs. If you want to use this feature, just create the activity types you need and they will be available for all your projects (you will also be able to disable or limit activity types to selected ones on a per project base). You find the activity types in the ictime administration menu:

You also have the option to completely deactivate activity types here (don't skip this step if you are sure that you don't need activity types, but deactivate them now).

Rounding Rules

If you have projects where you want to track time exactly as a time-span (with start/end time), but do not want to charge your clients the exact amount of time, but a rounded amount (like 15 minutes, 30 minutes etc.), you can define rounding rules. All rules you have defined will be available on project level. You find the rounding rules in the ictime administration menu:

If you don't need rounding at this moment, just skip this step.

Global Teams & Price Lists

ictime allows you to control who is able to log work via teams; and via price lists, you can set rates for the work of team members. You have the choice whether you want to work with global teams and price lists that can be assigned to specific projects or if you want to create your teams and price lists for each project (you also can mix both approaches). You find the global teams and price lists in the ictime administration menu:

You can skip this step if you have decided to globally deactivate team & price list checks in the add-on configuration (see step 1, Add-on Configuration).

5. Configure Projects

You find the project configuration in the ictime administration menu:

Project configuration contains different configuration options for each project. Click on one project ("Edit") to see all those options:

Set a project status (to be able to deactivate or close projects for time tracking).

Create project-specific teams and price lists (to control who can log work and to price your work) or assign one or more global teams (if you have decided to create global teams & price lists in step 5, see Configure Global Teams & Price Lists).

Select a rounding rule (if you have decided to create rounding rules in step 4, see Rounding Rules).

Define accounting references, e.g. for your exports.

Set a project currency (for your reports).

Select those activity types you want to use for this project (if you have decided to work with activity types in step 3, see Activity Types) or just use all.

Define one or more approval managers (in case you have activated approval in the General Configuration).

Most of this is optional, the only thing you need to do (if you did not decide to globally deactivate team & price list checks in step 1, see General Configuration) is creating teams and price lists (or assigning a global team if you have created one or more in step 5, see Configure Global Teams & Price Lists).

6. Do you need to log work on other screens?

Sometimes it makes sense to offer the option to log work not only as a separate feature, but also integrated into other screens, i.e. usually workflow transition screens (like resolve, close). For this, you need to replace the original JIRA "Log Work" field with a custom "Log Work ictime" field - if you don't do that and go on using the original JIRA field, you will be able to log work on such screens, but without any of the additional ictime features. 

7. Log Work

Once you have configured ictime and your projects according to your needs, users can start to log work. Apart from the options JIRA offers to log work (e.g. from the issue screen or in operations menues e.g. from dashboard gadgets or in the issue navigator)  ictime offers additional options where you can log work (also depending on permission configuration):

Via the JIRA navigation:

Via your timesheet:

8. My Timesheet

Once you have started to log work, your timesheet is a central place to manage your existing work logs. You just get there via the ictime navigation:

9. Reporting & Accounting

Once you have started to use ictime for logging work, administrative users can manage work logs of all users via the reporting options of ictime, from running reports, editing or moving  work logs to approval, exporting data, charging work logs etc. You get there via the ictime navigation:

10. Custom Reports

If you are running ictime >=5.8.2 you may want to test Custom Reports which are based on Jasper Reports. ictime ships with Custom Reports examples for all databases which are supported by Jira.

Please navigate to ictime / Administration /Custom Reports and click "Install Samples". You will end up with a screen similar to this one (available fonts depending on your installation):

Next, check your permissions to execute a report: Navigate to ictime / Administration / Permissions and add the group your user belongs to permission "Custom Report - Execute". Once done, you should be able to execute the sample reports.

Custom Reports can be triggered from the list above via "exec", from the Timesheet view and from Reporting.
When triggered in a filtered context, i.e. in Reporting, the report's output will be based on the report's result set only. Use this functionality for example to filter for a specific time period, project, or whatever (combined or not).

Sample Graphical Custom Report Output

For more specific information about Custom Reports, please visit Custom Reports and Custom Reports enhanced.

11. Time & Date Settings in JIRA?

JIRA has a rather confusing way of defining time & date settings for different purposes at different places. Even though misconfigurations frequently do not cause visible trouble in JIRA, ictime - due to the fact that time & date is essential for work logs - might show problems (error messages or time is not calculated correctly when using start/end time etc.) if settings are not okay. Please have a quick look at Time & Date Settings.

12. Operating in Different Timezones?

Even though ictime relies on JIRA data structures for work logs, there is a fundamental difference in how JIRA and ictime save work logs timestamps when a user has a different timezone setting compared to the server. If you are operating with users with different timezone settings and/or a server timezone settings that is different from user's timezone settings, please have a detailed look here (especially if you already have logged work before in JIRA): Timezone Issues