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Time logging tools

To facilitate accurate and timely time logging, we recommend using time tracking tools.

First, it is possible to track and log time directly in Tempo within Jira: look for "Tempo" -> "Tracker". This tracks time locally in the browser, and directly records to Jira. If this suits your workflow, this is probably the simplest method.

However, many members find that other third party time tracking tools work better for them. Some examples:

This is completely fine, but please note with these tools, you will need to upload your logs to Tempo in Jira at least once a day, to keep to the policy of work logs recorded in Jira within 24 hours.

Uploading or syncing can be a manual process, or it can be automated with your own script or an existing tool. Some existing tools include:

We highly recommend using an automation script to reduce the friction of keeping your worklogs updated in Jira.

If you use Toggl Track and looking for a way to sync the worklogs to Jira, see this tutorial.

Using Tempo in Jira

To manually work with Tempo worklogs in Jira - this is useful to know even if you use other tools, in case you ever need to do something manually.

  1. Open the task to work on in Jira. Scrolling down, you'll see a section named "Tempo".

empty Tempo section in Jira, showing a button to "Log Work"

  1. Click on "Log time" and fill in all the fields. Describe what you have done, select the date and time period that you've worked.

the Tempo "Log Work" modal form, showing the fields

  1. Your logged time should appear on that "Tempo" section of your Jira task, and should update the "Logged" and "Remaining" fields of the "Time Tracking" section.

the now populated Tempo section in Jira, showing a worklog recorded

the "Time Tracking" section in Jira, showing a summary of time spent on the ticket

To view all the time you logged on a month, you can go to the Tempo timesheet and get a nice view of all your logged time and make corrections if necessary. You may also enter time here directly if you prefer, rather than needing to visit each ticket for which you need to log time.

Tracking time directly with Tempo

Tempo in Jira includes a local time tracking widget. You can find this in the Jira menu, under "Tempo" -> "Tracker".

Jira menu dropdown, showing where to find the Tempo tracker widget

This will open a widget in the lower right corner of the Jira web page:

Tempo tracker widget (idle status)

Navigate to the ticket you wish to track time for, and click the play button to start time tracking:

Tempo tracker widget (time running, showing pause and stop buttons, and a ticket reference)

You can then use the pause button to pause tracking, and the stop button to stop tracking and open a modal form to enter a description and save the work log.