You can log work as you are used from JIRA. ictime enhances the existing log work screen and adds some convenience features for logging work faster and more efficiently, like
This chapter describes how to create, edit, resume and delete work logs. Please also refer to Manage Work Logs.
You can also create, edit, resume and delete work logs directly from your timesheet without having to navigate to an issue in JIRA (see Timesheet), or you can create new work logs directly from the JIRA navigation bar. |
ictime adds the option to log work in a couple of new places, and in addition you'll find the "Log Work" options in all places where you are alreayd used to from JIRA.
There might be other places, like e.g. Dashboard gadgets that display issues and also provide an issue operations (actions) dropdown.
As it is not possible that ictime overrides existing JIRA "log work" actions, ictime has to add own actions. This means that in some places, you will see two "Log Work" options after installation of ictime. There is some configuration work required to solve this issue, please refer here for more details: Hide/Disable JIRA's "Log Work" Dialogue and "Edit Work Log" Option. Please note that ictime automatically redirects the option to log work from the JIRA "Time Tracking" panel to the ictime screen (this is the only place where this can be done automatically). |
Apart from the places mentioned above (where you can open the "Log Work" dialogue), the log work option might also appear as part of other screens during workflow transitions. By default, this is the case e.g. for the "Resolve Issue" screen. See Custom Field Log Work for ictime for more information. |
If you enable all ictime features, the "Log Work" screen will look like this:
From ictime version 4.2 on, this dialogue will also offer the option to tick a checkbox to directly create another work log.
In this case, the dialogue won't close after saving and you can add the next work log.
Which options/fields are available in your specific case depend on
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The following table describes all fields, including the ones that you already know from the JIRA default "Log Work" screen:
Field | Description | Configurable | Remarks | |||
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User | Current user or user picker (if you respective permissions). | If you have the ictime permission "Log work for others" (see ictime Permissions), you can pick/change the user here and this way, can create work logs for other users. | ||||
Issue | Issue picker. If you are calling the "Log Work" screen from an issue (JIRA issue screen or JIRA Issue Navigator), the issue will be pre-populated. If you call the "Log Work" screen from the JIRA navigation, your timesheet etc., you will be required to select an issue first. To select/change an issue, start to type part of the issue description or key in the "Issue" field. The JIRA issue picker will return suggestions: |
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Date | Date, shows today's date (and current time) for new work logs. | You can change the date into the past or future, too. The field expects date & time (as this is the default in JIRA, JIRA writes a complete timestamp for the creation date/time into all work logs).
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Time | Log work/time as a time span/period "from-to" (start-end time). Use the icon to enter your current system time for "from" and "to". | Available yes/no, see General Configuration. Force time tracking without overlapping work logs, see General Configuration. | You log e.g. from 12:34 to 14:56, and ictime calculates the resulting time spent for you (displayed as read-only field behind the time fields).
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Time Spent | Log work/time as a result. This is the default way you log work in JIRA. | Available yes/no, see General Configuration. | e.g. as 12 or 12h, according to your JIRA time tracking configuration. You can find this configuration in JIRA under: Administration - System - Issue Features - Time Tracking (time estimates & default unit for time tracking) | |||
Corrected Time Spent (Corrected Result) | You can enter a time value that is different from the "time spent" value or the calculated time spent of logging work with a start and end time. | Available yes/no, see General Configuration. | Used to charge more or less time than the time that had been spent. In the summary of a report, the corrected time spent will be taken instead of "time spent" or the calculated time spent of logging work with a start and end time (see Reports: Summary & Analysis). Rounding rules (see Project Rounding Rule) are ignored in this case, the time value is taken exactly like entered by the user. | |||
Remaining Estimate | Various (JIRA) options to set or calculate the remaining estimate, if a work estimate has been done for the issue. | Available yes/no, see General Configuration. If "no", ictime will always calculate the remaining estimate automatically. If there is no original estimate, nothing will be done. | ||||
No Charge | Mark a work log as not to be charged and enter an optional comment/reason. | Available yes/no, see General Configuration. | In the summary of a report, the work log would be considered in the "No Charge" section of the report (see Reports: Summary & Analysis). An administrative user can change this setting when editing work logs, e.g. during the process of charing work logs in the Reporting section. See Reports: Work Log Details. | |||
Activity | Choose an activity type to categorise your work. If activity types are activated in ictime (see Activity Types), this interface will offer the activity type dropdown. This dropdown will be empty as long as you did not select an issue, as the activity types available for this issue might depend on your project configuration in ictime (see Project Activity Types). | Available yes /no, see Activity Types and Project Activity Types |
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Work Description | Description of your work. | Mandatory. |
It is up to you whether you log work as a result ("time spent") or a time span ("from-to"). You can use both methods for the same issue and can also change this for a work log when editing or resuming a work log. If you switch from "span/period" to "Time Spent" and save, of course you will loose start and end time for this work log. If you switch from "Time Spent" to "span/period", of course you will need to set a suitable start and end time. Logging work as time span has the following advantages:
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Resuming a work log means to create a new work log with data of an existing one, but pre-populating date field and time fields (if applicable) according to the current date and time. This is basically like "copying" some data of an existing work log.
This feature is useful if you e.g. are making a break and after your break, resume your work. This is why we call it "resume" and not simply "copy". You save time as data is already pre-populated. Do not get confused with the opreation of editing an existing work log, resuming really creates a new work log. |
On issue level, the feature is available either
Click the icon
to resume the respective work log. The interface is the same like for creating a new work log from the scratch (see above). Date and time fields are pre-populated according to the current date (and time, if you have logged work as time span). You can modify all fields.
If you can resume a work log (= create a new work log) depends on
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Work Log Attributes (Work Log Attributes (WLA)) are currently not properly supported when resuming work logs. |
Once you have created a work log, there are a couple of places where you can access/view your work log and can edit or delete it. Please refer to Manage Work Logs.
If you are entering a start and end time for a work log ("from/to") and the resulting time spent is not calculated, this can have two reasons.
First possible reason is that - like in the screenshot above - you have (accidentally) entered an end time which is before the start time. In this case, of course there is no result. You will get an error when trying to save.
The second, more complex reason - that might result in the same error message, but without getting obvious why the message is displayed - is that you have a specific non-consistent date & time setting configured in JIRA. This will happen if you have configured time settings in JIRA (Administration/System/Look and Feel/Date-Time Formats) as 12 hour clock, but without defining the AM/PM parameter.
For more information on date & time settings in JIRA, please refer to Time & Date Settings.