Integrate Jira

The Jira app is currently in early access and is not yet available on the Atlassian Marketplace. Contact us at help@getehour.com if you would like to try it.

eHour's Jira integration lets your team log time on Jira issues without leaving Jira. A time tracking panel is added to the Activity tab on each issue where users can log hours, use a stopwatch, and manage their entries.

All time is stored in eHour, not in Jira's native worklog. This means your time data stays in eHour where it feeds into timesheets, reports, and budgets, while Jira remains your project management tool. Jira's built-in work log items are not used.

While you can choose which specific Jira projects display the eHour interface, native work logs will not be available on any project.

Switching to eHour does not delete any existing Jira worklogs. If you switch back to Jira's built-in time tracking, your old Jira worklogs will reappear. However, time logged through eHour is stored exclusively in eHour and will not appear in Jira's native worklog view.

Overview

Setting up the integration involves four steps:

1. Connect eHour to Jira: authorize eHour to access your Jira Cloud instance via OAuth
2. Select Cloud Instance: selecting the Jira instance
3. Link projects: select which Jira projects map to eHour projects
4. Connect Jira with eHour: install the eHour time tracking app in Jira and connect it back to eHour

Step 1: Connect eHour to Jira

1. In eHour, go to Admin > Integrations > Jira
2. Click Connect Atlassian Jira
3. You'll be redirected to Atlassian's login page. Sign in with an Atlassian account that has admin access to the Jira site you want to connect.
4. Atlassian will ask you to grant eHour permissions to operate. An explanation of why we need each permission is at the bottom of this article.
5. Click Accept to authorize
6. You'll be redirected back to eHour

Step 2: Selecting your Jira Cloud instance

After authorization, eHour shows a list of Jira Cloud instances your Atlassian account has access to. Select the instance you want to connect and click Next.

Step 3: Link projects

After connecting to Jira, you'll see the project linking screen. This is where you choose which Jira projects should have time tracking powered by eHour.

The screen shows two columns:

• Left: Available Jira projects (from the connected Jira instance)
• Right: Linked projects (Jira projects already connected to eHour projects)

For each Jira project you want to link, you have two options:

• Link to an existing eHour project - choose an existing project from your eHour project list
• Create a new eHour project - eHour creates a new project automatically and links it to the Jira project

Once done, click Link Projects. eHour will:

• Start syncing issues from linked Jira projects into eHour as tasks
• Keep issues in sync automatically going forward

You can come back to this screen at any time to link or unlink projects.

Step 4: Connect Jira with eHour

eHour can now talk with Jira, but Jira cannot talk yet with eHour.

First we need to create the Jira app key to allow the Jira app to communicate with your eHour instance. (TODO: We're mixing the Jira app key and API Key. It is the same thing and terminology will be corrected)

1. Click Generate API Key
2. Copy the key now, as it won't be shown again. You will need it in the next step.
3. Install the eHour Time Tracking app in Jira (from the Atlassian Marketplace using the install link)
4. In Jira, go to Settings > Marketplace Apps > eHour Time Tracking
5. Paste the Jira app key and click Test Connection.
6. When it's says Connected to eHour, click Save.
7. eHour will be set as the active time tracking provider, and projects that were linked earlier are synced with eHour

Track time from Jira

With the integration active in both directions, users now see an “eHour Time Tracking” tab on each ithe selected projects. From there they can start a timer, log time manually, and view all time already tracked for that issue.

Time logged in Jira is recorded in eHour, so the same entry automatically appears in the user’s timesheet.

Reconnecting after token expiry

OAuth tokens can expire over time. If this happens, eHour shows a Reconnect Jira banner on the integration page. Click it to re-authorize. Your project links and API key remain intact.

Disconnecting Jira

1. In eHour, go to Admin > Integrations > Jira
2. Click Disconnect
3. You'll be asked whether to also delete the eHour projects that were created for the integration
4. Confirm to disconnect

Disconnecting removes the OAuth connection and webhooks. The Forge app in Jira will no longer be able to communicate with eHour. Time entries that were already logged are preserved in eHour.

Permissions

Atlassian will ask you to grant eHour the following permissions and this is what we use them for: