Integrate with Atlassian Jira

eHour integrates with Atlassian Jira to automatically sync issues from Jira to eHour —such as tasks, bugs, and stories—for the projects you configure. Any changes made in Jira, like new issues or reassignments, are automatically reflected in eHour.

You can decide how to manage who can track time: either use the assignee from Jira or define user access in eHour through a task blueprint.

Prerequisites

Before you connect eHour with Jira, you'll need:

An active eHour account with Admin privileges
Run Atlassian Jira Cloud. We do not support Atlassian Data Center just yet.
An Atlassian Jira account with the necessary permissions:
- Browse the relevant Jira projects
- View and read issues
- Access user information (e.g., "Browse Users and Groups")

How to Connect Jira with eHour

Navigate to the Admin section at ehourapp.com/eh/admin. As Jira Integration is in preview modes, this is not linked in the main navigation yet.
In the left sidebar, find INTEGRATIONS and click on Atlassian Jira

Authentication Process

When you click "Connect Atlassian Jira", you will be redirected to Atlassian to authorize the connection:

Log in to your Atlassian account if prompted
Review the requested permissions:
- Browse the relevant Jira projects
- View and read issues
- Access user information (e.g., "Browse Users and Groups")
Click to accept the permissions
You'll be redirected back to eHour to complete the setup

Cloud Instance Selection

After authentication, you'll need to select your Jira Cloud instance. If you have multiple instances, choose the one containing the projects you want to integrate with eHour.

Link Jira Projects

In the final step, you'll see the project selection screen with two main sections:

Projects in Jira: A list of all available Jira projects that you can integrate
Linked Projects: Projects that you've chosen to connect with eHour

To select projects:

Browse the list of Jira projects on the left side
Click the Add button next to each project you want to integrate
If you want to integrate all projects at once, use the Add All button
If you need to update the list of Jira projects, click the Refresh button

For each project you select, you can configure:

Project: Choose to either create a new eHour project or link to an existing one
- When creating a new project, it will use the Jira project name and code
- When linking to an existing project, the eHour project name and code will be updated to match the Jira project
Client: Select which eHour client this project should belong to
Jira Assign: Toggle whether to automatically assign eHour users based on Jira assignments
- When enabled, eHour will match and assign users who are assigned in Jira
- When disabled (default), no automatic user assignment occurs
- This is useful for testing the integration without affecting other users, or when you want to use blueprints and control the assignment yourself.

Matching Users Between Jira and eHour

When using Jira's built-in assignments, eHour needs to match users across both systems. However, Jira doesn't provide standard user identifiers (like email addresses) through its API. Instead, eHour intelligently matches users based on their names.

Automatic Name Matching

By default, eHour attempts to match Jira users to eHour users by comparing names. This works well when users have similar or identical names in both systems. The matching process:

Looks for name similarities between Jira and eHour users
Automatically links accounts with high name-matching confidence
Uses these links when assigning users to issues based on Jira assignments

Manual User Linking

If users have significantly different names in Jira and eHour, or if the automatic matching isn't correct, you can manually override the user mapping:

Navigate to Manage, then Users
Find the eHour user you want to link and click Settings
Go to the Linked Jira User section
Click Manually link to a Jira user
Select the correct corresponding Jira user from the dropdown list
Save your changes

Jira Permissions & Security

eHour requires three types of permissions when integrating with Jira:

Read-Only Access

Project and Issue Access: Permission to view projects and read issues
User Information Access: Permission to access user data for matching purposes

Webhook Management

Permission to register and manage webhooks that notify eHour of changes in Jira

Important Security Notes

eHour can only read your project, user, and issue data - it has no write access to your Jira system
Webhook permissions are strictly limited to the webhooks eHour creates for its own integration
eHour cannot access or modify webhooks created by other integrations
Webhooks are essential for the integration as they allow Jira to notify eHour when issues are updated or projects change

This limited permission scope ensures that your Jira data remains secure while still allowing for effective integration between eHour and Jira.

Testing the Integration

You can easily test the Jira integration without impacting existing users or projects in eHour. Follow these steps to set up a safe testing environment:

When adding a Jira project to eHour for testing:

Select Create as a new project rather than linking to an existing one
Keep the Jira Assign toggle switched to off - this prevents users from automatically getting assigned to tasks
Choose a client that is used for test projects

With these settings, you can verify the integration is working correctly while keeping it isolated from your production environment.

Disconnecting the Integration

If you need to remove the integration:

Navigate to the Jira integration settings
Click Cancel Authorization
Check the option Also delete all eHour projects that are linked to Jira to completely remove all projects and tasks created during testing

Feedback

As Jira is highly configurable with many different setups and workflows, we hope all tasks and issues end up in eHour properly. If you run into any issues or spot potential improvements with the integration, please let us know using help@getehour.com.