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. 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 an "Adminsitration" 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" 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 - we offer the following two options on the general configuration screen (see above):

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

4. 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.

ictime's administration section is divided into a couple of subitems:

Permissions

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 limit activity types to selected ones on a per project base). You find the activity types in the ictime navigation menu:

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

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 navigation menu:

If you don't need rounding, 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 a team. 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 navigation menu:

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

5. Configure Projects

Project configuration contains a couple of configuration options that should help you to efficiently use ictime:

• Set a project status (to be able to deactivate or close projects for time tracking).
• Set a project currency (for your financial reports).
• Select a rounding rule (if you have decided to create rounding rules in step 4).
• 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).
• Select those activity types you want to use for this project (if you have decided to work with activity types in step 3) or just use all.

You find the project configuration in the ictime navigation menu:

All this is optional. The only thing you really need to do (if you did not decide to globally deactivate team & price list checks in step 1) is creating teams and price lists (or assigning a global team if you have created one or more in step 5).

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, like e.g. workflow transition screens (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. Usually, ictime offers a couple of places where you can log work:

• Via the JIRA issue screen:
  
  (on this screen, in fact there are multiple places where you can log work)
• 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 just get there via the ictime navigation:

10. Time & Date Settings in JIRA?

JIRA has a rather complex 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.