Most leave management systems start with standard categories such as Annual Leave and Sick Leave. While these may work for smaller or more traditional organizations, they quickly become limiting as your company grows, diversifies, or adopts more flexible work policies. This is where understanding and knowing how to set up custom leave types come in handy.

Why? Because different teams have different needs, and different countries have different regulations. Besides, modern workplaces increasingly support employee well-being initiatives that don’t fit neatly into generic leave categories.

What are the common custom leave types?

Custom leave types are leave categories tailored specifically to your organization’s policies, culture, and compliance requirements. They go beyond the default “Annual Leave” and “Sick Leave” structure.

From a managerial perspective, these categories help you more accurately reflect reality in your reporting and planning.

Here are some common examples of custom leave types you may find available:

• Personal & Wellness Leave: Many organizations now create specific leave types, such as Mental Health Leave, Wellness Days, or Personal Emergency Leave, to promote transparency and remove stigma.
• Work Arrangement–Related Leave: With hybrid and remote work models becoming standard, companies often create leave types like Work From Home (WFH) Leave, Remote Work Day, or Half-Day Leave. These categories help managers track availability accurately without categorizing flexible arrangements as “absence”.
• Company-Specific Leave: Some leave types are unique to your company culture or internal policies, including Volunteer Leave, Study Leave, Marriage Leave, or Bereavement (Compassionate) Leave.
• Compliance & Regional Leave: This category includes custom leave types such as Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave, Parental Leave, Jury Duty, or Military Leave, when compliance becomes more complex.

As a result, separating these categories helps ensure accurate reporting and compliance documentation. It also protects both employees and the organization in case of audits or disputes.

Remember: custom leave types reflect how your organization truly operates — not just how a generic system defines leave.

Why use custom leave types to manage PTO?

Before diving into the specific benefits, it’s important to understand that custom leave types are not just administrative labels — they are strategic tools that help you manage PTO with greater clarity, accuracy, and control.

1. Better policy alignment

Your HR policies define how leave should work. Custom leave types ensure your system reflects those policies accurately.

Without customization, teams may:

• Use sick leave for personal emergencies
• Mix parental leave with annual leave
• Misclassify flexible work arrangements

Over time, this creates inaccurate data and confusion.

Therefore, custom leave types eliminate ambiguity. Each request clearly matches a policy category, reducing administrative back-and-forth and improving transparency.

2. Improved reporting and workforce planning

From a management standpoint, reporting is critical.

When leave types are clearly categorized, you can:

• Identify trends (e.g., high sick leave usage in certain teams)
• Forecast staffing shortages
• Understand seasonal absence patterns
• Measure engagement initiatives like volunteer programs

For example, if you introduce Mental Health Leave and see consistent usage, it may indicate healthy adoption of well-being initiatives. Alternatively, spikes could signal workload stress.

Without proper categorization, these insights remain hidden.

3. Clearer employee experience

Employees appreciate clarity. When they request leave, they should know exactly what category applies.

Clear leave types help:

• Reduce confusion
• Increase confidence in the process
• Decrease approval delays
• Improve trust in management systems

Therefore, a well-structured leave system signals organizational maturity and fairness.

4. Flexible PTO strategy

Organizations evolve. Policies change. Teams expand.

Custom leave types allow you to adapt without disrupting the entire leave structure. You can introduce new categories, adjust quotas, or refine eligibility as business needs shift.

From a strategic management perspective, flexibility is not optional — it’s necessary.

How to set up custom leave types for your organization

Now let’s move into practical implementation. To set up custom leave types for your teams, you will need to get a capacity planning or time tracker first. And TimePlanner is perfect for that. It allows managers to track employees’ workload and ensure they are working at their full capacity.

When using TimePlanner, setting up custom leave types is straightforward, but it requires clarity in your internal policies first. Before configuring anything, ensure that your HR guidelines clearly define eligibility criteria, paid vs. unpaid status, accrual rules, and approval workflows.

Step 1: Navigate to the Leave settings

After installing Teamboard TimePlanner, access the app with Admin permissions. From the left sidebar menu, locate Settings and choose Leaves.

Then, in the main settings interface, you can scroll down to find the Leave types. By default, there are 4 most common leave types: Paid, Unpaid, Sick, and Other, ready to be used.

But of course, we are here to set up new custom types.

Step 2: Create a new leave type

You can click the Add new button sitting on the same line as the Leave types. Then, there will be a prompt allowing you to configure the leave type’s basic details:

• Leave name
• Description
• Pay percentage
• Allocation target

Again, you should choose a clear, descriptive name for each custom leave type to avoid any misunderstandings among your employees. Besides, you should conduct a meeting with your HR and other stakeholders to specify the pay percentage applicable for this leave type (e.g., 100% means fully paid leave).

Additionally, you should also decide if that type can be counted against the total allocated leave days in your organization by toggling the Allocation target.

Step 3: Configure leave rules

Once you’ve added new leave types for your teams and employees, it is recommended to check the rules for requesting PTO.

Depending on the leave type, you can configure:

• Allocation Days: the number of PTO allowed per year.
• Allow accumulation: This is also known as the Carry-over rules, allowing employees to carry unused PTO over to the next year.

Additionally, you can also set up different leave allocation rules for a specific employee or a group of employees.

For example, interns with fewer contractual obligations may be subject to different PTO policies than core employees.

Step 4: Save and test

With all that done, the custom leave types are now available for testing. You can try to submit a test leave request using this leave category and complete the approval process.

Once approved, you should verify that the leave balance is deducted correctly and that the request appears accurately on the team calendar.

Finally, check the availability view to ensure the employee is marked as unavailable (or partially unavailable for half-day leave). This confirmation ensures that your leave type is functioning properly and reflects accurately in resource planning.

Conclusion

Every organization is different, and your leave management system should reflect that. Custom leave types allow you to shape your PTO structure in a way that truly matches your policies, culture, and operational needs.

When leave categories are clear and well-defined, everyone benefits — employees feel confident submitting requests, and managers gain accurate visibility for planning and decision-making.

With TimePlanner, setting up custom leave types is simple and flexible. By taking the time to configure them thoughtfully, you create a leave system that feels fair, transparent, and easy to manage — something both your team and your leadership will appreciate.

The post How to Set Up Custom Leave Types appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.

The challenge appears when the same people or limited resources are needed by multiple parts of the team at the same time. One designer gets pulled in five directions. A shared specialist becomes the bottleneck for three different sprints. Deadlines slip, stress rises, and collaboration starts to feel painful instead of productive.

This is a very common situation. The good news is that you can prevent most of these problems with better visibility and simple planning habits.

What is a cross-functional team?

A cross-functional team pulls people from different departments – think engineers, designers, marketers, and even sales – to tackle a shared goal. Unlike traditional setups where silos rule, these groups mix expertise at all levels, from juniors to seniors. They might report to various managers but unite for one project, like rolling out a customer portal.

These teams shine because they spark innovation. Diverse views challenge old habits and cut groupthink. Members learn new skills, boosting satisfaction and retention. Companies move faster overall – projects wrap up efficiently without endless handoffs. Atlassian notes they help trial ideas before big hires and align everyone on customer needs.

But here’s the catch: about 75% of them struggle. Without clear direction, they spin wheels. That’s where shared resource management steps in. It ensures the right people contribute without burnout.

Problems with shared resources in cross-functional teams

When multiple teams depend on the same people or assets, small conflicts quickly turn into bigger delays. Here are the most common issues:

• One person becomes a bottleneck. A senior developer or lead designer gets assigned to every important task, causing queues everywhere else.

• Visibility is poor. No one has a clear picture of who is booked when, so double-bookings and last-minute scrambles happen often.

• Department priorities clash. A marketer needs a quick review, but the engineer is focused on a critical bug fix. Both feel blocked.

• Workloads become uneven. Some team members hit 120% capacity while others have spare time, leading to burnout on one side and frustration on the other.

• Changes are hard to communicate. A schedule shift in one project isn’t visible to the rest of the team, so people keep working on outdated plans.

These problems are widespread. Many cross-functional teams struggle with exactly these patterns, especially when they grow beyond a handful of people or start working across time zones. Left unchecked, they slow delivery, increase stress, and make collaboration feel more difficult than it needs to be.

When do you need to manage shared resources?

Jump in when cross-functional work heats up. Signs include:

• Multiple Jira projects feeding one initiative, like a product launch spanning engineering, design, and sales.

• Repeated complaints: “I’m swamped” or “Why is this delayed?”

• Overlaps in calendars or backlogs – shared experts ping-ponged between teams.

• Scaling pains: Growing from 10 to 50 people, or adding remote folks across time zones.

• Metrics slipping: Cycle times up 20%, utilization uneven (some at 120%, others idle).

If your team feels reactive – firefighting reschedules or chasing approvals – it’s time. Early management prevents 75% dysfunction rates. It builds trust, equips everyone with visibility, and lets you adapt to shifts like vacations or priority pivots. In Jira, when basic issue tracking shows bottlenecks but no capacity view, add resource tools. ProScheduler fits here, turning data into actionable timelines without leaving your workflow.

Think quarterly launches or agile sprints crossing departments. Proactive steps keep momentum, cut waste, and free time for creative work.

Detailed steps for managing shared resources in cross-functional teams

ProScheduler builds on Jira to make this visual and simple. Its Schedule Board acts like a shared calendar, with workload heatmaps and drag-and-drop ease. Programs unify projects; resources get tagged by skills. No more guesswork – changes sync real-time. Follow these steps to set it up.

Step 1: Use a Program to manage multiple projects in one board

Cross-functional work usually lives across several Jira projects. Trying to track everything separately creates silos and missed connections.

In ProScheduler:

• Go to the Programs section from main page.

• Create a new Program.

• Add all the relevant Jira projects that share the same goal or resources.

Once set up, you get one board that shows tasks, timelines, and people across every project. This single view makes it much easier to see shared constraints, align on milestones, and avoid working in isolation.

Tip: Give the Program a clear name like “Q3 Product Launch – Cross-Team” so everyone immediately understands the scope.

Step 2: Ask team members to add their position and skills in app settings

Clear profiles mean fair matches. Without them, you assign blindly, overloading generalists.

Direct your team:

• In ProScheduler, go to App Settings → My Settings (personal profile).

• Add position (e.g., “UI Designer”), department and skills (e.g., “Figma, Prototyping, Accessibility”).

This promotes cross-exposure – marketers learn dev basics, sparking ideas. It selects for expertise, as Atlassian advises, building independent contributors.

Tip: Set a quick team huddle or Slack reminder. Profiles update capacities too, reflecting real strengths.

Step 3: Define resources – add users, groups, and generic placeholders

Now build the resource pool that reflects your real team structure.

In the Resources tab:

• Add individual users from Jira.

• Create groups by department or function (Marketing, Engineering, Design, QA, etc.). You can add as many groups as needed.

• Add generic placeholder resources like “Unassigned Designer” or “Shared Engineer Pool” for tasks that haven’t been assigned yet.

• Set basic capacity rules: daily working hours, public holidays, and overload thresholds.

Grouping by department makes it easier to see cross-functional flow while still respecting how the organization is structured.

Tip: Focus first on the people and groups active in your current Program to keep the setup manageable.

Step 4: Switch to the Schedule board and organize by group or department

The Schedule Board is your main working view. It looks and feels like a shared calendar.

• Open the Schedule tab inside your Program.

• Group resources vertically by department or group (adjust this in the board settings).

• Use filters to show only certain projects, skills, or people.

This layout gives everyone a clear, at-a-glance picture of who is working on what and when. It’s especially helpful for teams that don’t meet every day.

Tip: Experiment with day, week, or month zoom levels depending on your planning horizon.

Step 5: Create new tasks or allocate ongoing tasks on the schedule board

Align actions to timelines.

• Drag Jira issues from the backlog or create new cards directly.

• Drop onto resource slots; stretch for duration.

• For ongoing: Reposition based on real availability.

Tasks from different projects are color-coded for clarity. Here, the cross-functional project (‘Goal Tracker Mini-Feature’) appears in denim blue. ProScheduler offers several ways to visually distinguish tasks across projects.

Tasks respect capacities now. Multi-assignee for shared work (e.g., review by design + dev). Builds next-step clarity.

Step 6: Use the Workload feature to identify bottlenecks via heatmap

Catch issues before frustration.

Toggle Workload on the toolbar to see heatmap colors: Blue (free), green (full), red (overload).

Red blocks show exactly where someone is stretched too thin. Hover over any cell to see total hours, assigned tasks, and overload percentage.

To fix: Drag tasks to a later date / Move them to someone with more availability / Split the work by adding another assignee.

The heatmap updates instantly, so you can see the impact of each change right away.

Step 7: Notify involved members of changes

Good communication keeps everyone aligned without flooding inboxes.

Whenever you move a task, change a date, or update assignments:

• ProScheduler sends in-app notifications.

• Email alerts go out to the affected people.

Take Control Today

Managing shared resources doesn’t have to be complicated. With clear visibility and a few consistent steps, you can reduce overload, cut delays, and make cross-functional work feel smoother and more enjoyable.

Start small: set up one Program for your most important initiative, get profiles updated, and begin using the Schedule Board and Workload heatmap. You’ll quickly see where the pressure points are and how easy it is to shift things around.

Your team will thank you for the clarity. Projects will land on time more often. And you’ll spend less energy firefighting and more time building.

For more details on any feature, check the ProScheduler documentation at http://docs.devsamurai.com/teamboard-proscheduler.

You’ve got this.

The post Manage shared resources in cross-functional teams appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.

The result? Missed approvals, overlapping absences, and project plans that quietly fall apart.

With TeamBoard TimePlanner, you can turn Jira into a transparent, structured day-off management system without reinventing your workflow or overwhelming your team.

Let’s walk through a real-world use case of how teams set up a smooth employee day-off workflow inside Jira.

What is a day off?

A day off refers to any approved period when an employee is not available during their regular working hours. This includes planned absences such as vacation or parental leave, as well as unplanned time off like sick leave or personal emergencies. A day off can cover a full day or a partial day, depending on company policy.

From a planning perspective, a day off is more than just an absence—it directly affects team capacity, task ownership, and delivery timelines. If time off is not tracked accurately, teams may plan work based on availability that doesn’t actually exist, leading to delays and uneven workloads.

What is the day-off workflow?

The day-off workflow describes the process employee leave follows from request to completion. It ensures that time off is approved, recorded, and reflected in team planning so availability remains accurate.

A typical day-off workflow includes the following stages:

• Accrual: The employee earns leave time or is granted a leave quota.

• Request: The employee submits a request for time off.

• Validation: The system checks whether the request complies with company policies and available leave balances.

• Approval: A manager reviews the request based on team capacity and business needs.

• Recording: The leave is logged, leave balances are updated, and calendars or schedules reflect the absence.

A well-defined day-off workflow helps teams plan realistically and prevents surprises caused by untracked or unmanaged absences.

The challenges of native Jira leave management

While Jira is powerful for issue and project tracking, it is not designed to manage employee leave. Teams that rely on Jira alone often face the following challenges:

• No clear visibility of team availability: Jira does not provide a team-wide view of who is off and when, making it easy to assign work to unavailable team members.

• No leave balance tracking: Jira cannot track leave accruals or remaining leave days, forcing teams to manage this information manually outside the system.

• Manual and unreliable workarounds: Many teams create placeholder issues like “Vacation – Alex” to mark absences. These clutter boards, distort reports, and don’t adjust capacity automatically.

• Lack of approval workflows: Jira has no built-in process for approving, rejecting, recalling, or revoking leave requests, leading to approvals being handled through emails or chat messages.

• Poor support for capacity planning: Because leave is not connected to schedules or capacity, planning often relies on assumptions rather than actual availability.

These limitations make native Jira leave management difficult to scale and unreliable for teams that depend on accurate planning.

Read more: Common Challenges of Leave Management in Jira and How to Overcome them

Setting up a day-off workflow in Jira with TimePlanner

TeamBoard TimePlanner bridges the gap in Jira’s native functionality by offering a comprehensive, visual, and automated leave management system. It allows teams to transition from manual, spreadsheet-based tracking to an integrated workflow where leave requests directly affect capacity planning.

Here is the step-by-step guide to setting up a clear and reliable leave management workflow inside Jira using TeamBoard TimePlanner.

Step 1: Defining leave policies in TimePlanner

Before employees start submitting leave requests, it’s important to define how leave should work in your organization. Clear leave policies help ensure consistency, reduce confusion, and make approvals easier for managers. In TeamBoard TimePlanner, these rules are configured centrally so everyone follows the same process.

1.1 Enable the leave approval workflow

The first decision is whether leave requests should require approval. When the leave approval workflow is enabled, all leave requests must be reviewed and approved before they are confirmed. This helps teams avoid coverage gaps, overlapping absences, and unexpected disruptions to project delivery.

If approval is not required, leave requests are recorded automatically. This option may work for smaller teams or environments with flexible policies.

1.2 Define default leave allocation

Next, define how many leave days employees receive by default each year. This forms the baseline leave entitlement across your organization.

• Set the annual leave allocation

• Decide whether unused leave days can be carried over to the next year

• Define a maximum limit for accumulated leave

In some cases, specific employees or teams may require different leave entitlements. TimePlanner allows you to create custom allocations that override the default rules.

1.3 Define leave approvers

Control who manages the approval process:

• Allow users to change the default approver if your organization supports flexible approval structures

• Allow users to assign themselves as approvers, useful in small teams or self-managed environments

1.4 Configure leave types

Create distinct categories for time-off requests. Common leave types include:

• Paid time off (PTO): A flexible pool combining vacation and personal time.

• Vacation leave: Dedicated time off strictly for rest and recreation.

• Sick leave: Unscheduled time off for illness or medical appointments.

• Bereavement/Compassionate leave: Leave for grieving the loss of a loved one.

• Parental leave: Long-term leave for childbirth, adoption, or childcare.

Step 2: Employee submits a leave request

On the My Requests page, employees can view their assigned leave allocation, remaining leave days, and leave already taken. This visibility helps them confirm they have enough balance before submitting a request.

To create a leave request, the employee selects the appropriate leave type, chooses the date range (including full days or partial days), and adds optional notes such as “Doctor appointment” or handover details. After reviewing the information, the request is submitted and marked as Pending, making it visible to the assigned approver for review.

If the request exceeds the available leave balance or does not comply with allocation rules, TimePlanner automatically prevents the submission and prompts the employee to adjust the request. This ensures that only valid leave requests move forward.

Managers or approvers can also submit leave requests on behalf of team members, which is useful for urgent situations, offline requests, or administrative support.

Step 3: Approver reviews the request

Once a leave request is submitted, the assigned approver receives a notification to ensure the request is reviewed promptly.

Approvers can access all pending requests from the Leave Requests section in TimePlanner. Each request includes key information such as the employee’s name, leave type, date range, and any notes provided.

Before taking action, approvers review the request in relation to team availability, existing approved leave, and current project commitments. If needed, they can communicate with the employee to clarify details.

Step 4: Approval or Rejection

After the review, the approver makes a final decision based on team capacity and business priorities.

When the request is approved:

TimePlanner confirms the leave, deducts the requested days from the employee’s leave balance, and marks the employee as unavailable for the selected dates on schedules and calendars. The employee receives a confirmation notification.

Additionally, plans can change after leave has already been approved. TimePlanner supports this by allowing approved time off to be recalled or revoked in a controlled and transparent way.

When the request is rejected:

If the approver rejects the request, the employee is notified of the decision, along with a reason if one is provided. No changes are made to leave balances, schedules, or capacity, and the requested dates remain available for planning.

Conclusion

TeamBoard TimePlanner centralizes leave management directly within Jira, replacing disconnected manual processes with a structured, automated workflow that enhances team productivity and resource planning. By integrating leave requests into Jira’s scheduling, the app ensures accurate capacity planning and prevents overbooking or scheduling conflicts.

The post Setting up employee day off workflow in Jira is simpler than you think appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.

While Jira excels at tracking tasks, workflows, and progress, it does not provide a built-in way to manage employee leave. This gap has led many teams to rely on spreadsheets, shared calendars, or informal messages—solutions that don’t scale and often fail when planning matters most.

Fortunately, the Atlassian Marketplace offers several leave management apps designed specifically for Jira users. In this article, we’ll explore the best Jira leave management solutions, evaluate them from a resource and team management perspective, and help you choose the right option for your team.

Why choose a Jira leave management app from the marketplace?

Jira does not include native functionality for requesting, approving, or tracking leave. There is no standard way to see who is on vacation, sick leave, or otherwise unavailable during a sprint. As a result, most teams manage absences outside Jira, which creates several challenges:

• Team availability is disconnected from sprint planning
• Project managers lack a reliable view of capacity
• Leave approvals and records are scattered across tools
• Last-minute absences can disrupt delivery plans

Atlassian Marketplace apps are designed to close this gap by extending Jira with dedicated leave and absence management capabilities, all within the same environment your teams already use.

Read more: How to overcome challenges in Jira leave management with TimePlanner.

Here are several key advantages that marketplace leave management apps offer:

• Native Jira integration:  Leave requests, approvals, and calendars live directly in Jira, reducing context switching and manual updates.
• Improved transparency: Team members, scrum masters, and managers can clearly see availability, making planning more predictable.
• Better sprint and resource planning: Planned absences can be factored into sprint commitments, helping teams avoid over-allocation.
• Automation and consistency: Approval workflows, leave policies, and holiday rules are standardized instead of handled informally.
• Scalability: Marketplace apps support growing teams and organizations across Jira Cloud and Data Center.

For agile teams that depend on realistic planning and predictable delivery, managing leave inside Jira is no longer optional—it’s essential.

5 best Jira leave management solutions for agile teams

Now, let’s take a closer look at the 5 best solutions for managing leaves that you can get from the Atlassian marketplace.

1. TimePlanner by DevSamurai

Teamboard TimePlanner is a high-utility resource management suite that treats leave as a critical variable in your project’s financial and operational success. It is one of the Jira leave management solutions designed to bridge the gap between human absence and project deadlines.

Rather than viewing leave in a vacuum, this solution treats it as a critical variable that determines your project’s total bandwidth. Additionally, the app allows teams to plan and track absences alongside scheduled work. So when a team member is unavailable, that information will reflect directly in capacity views and plans.

Key features:

• Capacity-based resource board: Automatically adjusts an individual’s “Maximum Capacity” (e.g., from 40 hours to 16 hours) based on approved leave to prevent accidental over-allocation.
• Billable vs. non-billable tracking: Links leave types to specific billing rates, allowing you to see the exact financial impact of paid leaves on your project budget.
• Skill-based allocation: When a team member is on leave, you can search for “replacement resources” based on specific skills (e.g., “Automation Tester”) to maintain project momentum.

Additionally, the app allows teams to plan and track absences alongside scheduled work. When a team member is unavailable, that information is reflected directly in capacity views and plans.

By combining work allocation and leave planning, TimePlanner helps managers answer critical questions:

• Do we have enough capacity for the next sprint?
• Who is over-allocated?
• How do absences impact delivery timelines?

Pros

• Combines leave management, time tracking, and resource planning
• Strong capacity visibility for sprint and project planning
• Helps prevent over-allocation and delivery risk
• Reduces reliance on multiple Marketplace apps

Cons

• More feature-rich than teams that need only basic time-off tracking
• Requires initial setup to unlock full planning value

2. UpRaise People

UpRaise People takes a more HR-centric approach to leave management within Jira. It is designed for organizations that want to manage employee information, organizational structure, and leave policies in a centralized way.

Key features:

• OKR and performance linkage: View how leave patterns impact a team member’s ability to hit their Key Results and project milestones.
• Punch-in approval engine: A new layer of accountability where time-off and work-logs require structured multi-level approvals for better audit trails.
• Advanced automation triggers: Automatically create Jira tasks or send Slack alerts based on leave status changes (e.g., “Auto-assign task to Lead when Senior is out”).

For managers overseeing larger or growing teams, UpRaise People provides a clear and consistent framework for managing people data alongside Jira work items.

Pros

• Strong HR-focused approach within Jira
• Centralized management of employee data and leave policies
• Suitable for growing organizations with structured processes
• Supports public holidays and approval workflows

Cons

• Can feel heavy for teams only needing time-off visibility
• Less focused on sprint capacity and delivery planning
• May introduce features some agile teams don’t actively use

3. Teamployees

Teamployees is a “human-centric” management tool designed for global, remote, or hybrid teams. It focuses on visibility and transparency, ensuring that team leaders are aware of time zones and the social fabric of the team.

Key features:

• Presence and world clock gadgets: Dashboard elements that show you exactly who is online, who is on leave, and the current local time for your distributed team.
• Burnout trend analysis: Generates reports identifying “absence-deprived” employees, helping you proactively encourage leave to prevent long-term fatigue.
• Social and personal profiles: Tracks birthdays, work anniversaries, and hobbies alongside professional skills to build a more connected remote culture.

Pros:

• The most visually appealing interface on the market, encouraging high team engagement.
• Excellent for global teams managing multiple regional holiday calendars.
• Includes “Presence Status” so you know who is currently in a meeting or “Deep Work” mode.

Cons:

• Less focus on the “math” of resource capacity (e.g., hours and minutes).
• Does not integrate deeply with project-level budgeting or financial tools.

4. Leave Tracker

Leave Tracker by Alty Inc. focuses on simplicity and ease of use. The app also uses native Jira work items similar to TimePlanner and other leave management solutions to manage requests. It is perfect for team leaders who want a low-maintenance, reliable system that stays out of the way of the actual work.

Leave Tracker by Alty Inc. is well-suited for teams that need straightforward leave tracking and want results quickly, without advanced planning or HR features.

Pros

• Simple and lightweight leave management solution
• Easy to set up and use with minimal configuration
• Clear team calendars for quick availability checks
• Ideal for small to mid-sized teams

Cons

• Limited reporting and planning capabilities
• Not designed for advanced resource or capacity management
• May not scale well for complex organizational structures

5. Smart Time-off for Jira

Smart Time-off for Jira is a modern, high-velocity solution that aims for communication among Jira leave management solutions. It is built for the “Slack-first” manager who needs to handle administrative tasks without ever leaving their primary communication channel.

Key features:

• One-click external approvals: Approve or deny requests directly from Slack or MS Teams notifications, no need to open Jira.
• Zero-data-access security: A unique architecture where your sensitive employee data stays within your local instance and is never stored on the vendor’s servers.
• Customizable time-off styles: Create visual, color-coded categories like “Offsite,” “Conference,” or “Family Emergency” for instant calendar clarity.

As a result, the app makes it easy for team members to request time off and for managers to approve and plan around absences without friction.

Pros

• Purpose-built for time-off and leave management
• Clean UI with fast user adoption
• Flexible leave types and approval workflows
• Works well for teams of various sizes

Cons

• Limited resource planning and capacity forecasting
• No built-in time tracking or delivery planning features
• Focused strictly on leave, not broader workforce management

What makes TimePlanner a better choice, for everyone

While many Jira Marketplace apps focus solely on managing time off, TimePlanner addresses a broader and more strategic challenge: how teams allocate time, manage capacity, and deliver work predictably. For project managers and team leaders, leave management is only one piece of the puzzle.

Additionally, understanding how available time is distributed across work items, projects, and teams is what ultimately enables confident planning.

1. Enhance time tracking at the work item level

TimePlanner allows teams to track work time directly on Jira work items, ensuring that time spent is closely tied to actual delivery activities. This work item-level time tracking provides accurate, real-world data on how long work takes, rather than relying on estimates alone.

Over time, this data helps teams refine planning assumptions, improve estimation accuracy, and better understand where capacity is being consumed. Meanwhile, for managers, this means planning is informed by evidence rather than intuition, reducing the risk of unrealistic commitments.

2. Capacity and resource planning with real availability

Unlike leave-only tools, TimePlanner combines time tracking data with planned absences to present a clear and realistic picture of team capacity. When a team member schedules time off, their available capacity is automatically adjusted across planning views.

As a result, this allows managers and leaders to see not just who is absent, but how much effective capacity remains for the team as a whole. Besides, this level of insight is particularly valuable during sprint planning and roadmap discussions, where overestimating availability can quickly lead to missed deadlines.

3. Visual workload distribution across teams and projects

TimePlanner provides visual planning views that allow managers to distribute work across teams and projects while accounting for availability constraints. Therefore, workloads can be balanced more effectively by identifying over-allocated individuals early and redistributing tasks before delivery is impacted.

For team leaders, this supports proactive management rather than reactive firefighting when capacity issues arise mid-sprint.

4. Improve sprint planning and forecasting

By aligning planned work with actual available capacity, TimePlanner enables more reliable sprint planning. Teams can commit to work based on what they can realistically deliver, factoring in time off, ongoing work, and historical time usage.

In return, this reduces the likelihood of scope spillover and increases confidence in sprint goals.

From a forecasting perspective, TimePlanner helps managers assess whether upcoming milestones are achievable given current capacity trends.

Conclusion

Leave management is not just an administrative task—it directly affects team capacity, sprint commitments, and delivery outcomes. Since Jira does not offer native leave management, you can always look for leave management solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace to close this gap.

Whether your team needs simple time-off tracking, HR-oriented leave processes, or advanced resource planning, the right solution depends on how you plan and manage work.

For project managers and team leaders, the most effective leave management tools are those that make availability visible, reduce planning risk, and support confident, capacity-aware delivery.

The post 5 Best Jira Leave Management Solutions appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.

Without this clarity, time tracking can lead to inaccurate invoicing, hidden inefficiencies, or strained team capacity. By understanding how to calculate, manage, and reduce these hours, you’ll gain better control over your project costs and ensure sustainable team performance.

In this article, we’ll explore the key differences between billable and non-billable hours and discover how each impacts cost tracking, resource planning, and project profitability.

What are billable hours?

Billable hours are the hours that can be directly charged to a client, customer, or external stakeholder based on an agreed contract, billing rate, or scope of work. From a cost-tracking perspective, billable hours are the clearest link between time spent and revenue earned.

Depending on your industry, billable hours may include:

• Development, design, or testing work for a client project
• Executing test cases or validating features under a paid engagement
• Client meetings directly related to delivery or decision-making
• Paid consulting, advisory, or support sessions
• Client-specific research, documentation, or configuration
• Bug fixes or enhancements covered by a maintenance contract

From a team leader’s perspective, billable hours are not just about charging clients — they are a core input for project profitability, forecasting, and pricing decisions.

And…non-billable hours?

Well, they are the opposite of what we just mentioned above. Non-billable hours are hours spent on work that cannot be charged directly to a client. While they do not generate immediate revenue, they are essential for keeping the organization running and improving long-term performance.

A common mistake in comparing billable hours vs. non-billable hours is to treat non-billable ones as “lost time.” In reality, non-billable work often enables billable work to happen effectively.

Typical non-billable activities include:

• Internal meetings, stand-ups, and retrospectives
• Training, onboarding, and skill development
• Administrative work such as reporting, timesheets, and coordination
• Internal planning, backlog refinement, and documentation
• Sales activities, demos, and proposal preparation
• Process improvement and internal tooling work

From a management standpoint, these hours still consume capacity and budget, even if they don’t appear on an invoice.

Billable vs. non-billable hours: What’s the difference?

Calculating billable hours is relatively simple. All you have to do is multiply the total hours worked on a client project by your hourly rate. The formula should be like this:

For example, if you have a team member who logged 100 hours at a rate of $50 per hour:

However, things become a bit more complicated when you have to charge different fees to different clients and projects, or when you have a diverse team doing tasks at different billing rates. And don’t forget about all those variations that you need to account for.

This is where Teamboard TimePlanner simplifies everything. You just have to track working time and mark billable hours correctly, and leave the rest to TimePlanner.

1. Set hourly billing rates

When calculating billable hours, the first step is to set hourly billing rates for different team members or services provided. However, managing these rates, especially when employees have varying rates based on role or expertise, can lead to errors or confusion.

For instance, a senior developer might charge $100 per hour, while a junior designer might charge $50. You should accurately assign these rates in your system to ensure each team member’s work is billed appropriately.

With TimePlanner, you can easily set and assign different hourly rates for each team member, role, or project. This allows you to avoid errors in rate assignment and ensures that each billable hour is calculated using the correct rate, automatically updating based on the selected project or team member.

2. Track time spent on activities

After setting up billing rates, you should focus on tracking the time spent on activities. When calculating billable hours, ensuring to record each task correctly helps maintain accurate financial records and supports efficient billing processes later on.

Additionally, one of the most common issues is the possibility of missing or incorrect time entries. Without a dedicated time-tracking tool, employees may forget to log time spent on client-related activities or accidentally record non-billable work as billable.

Fortunately, you can simplify this process by using a time tracking tool like TimePlanner. Employees can start and stop a timer as they work on client-related tasks, ensuring that all time is recorded accurately and in real-time.

As a result, this eliminates the risk of missing entries and allows for seamless tracking of billable hours without relying on manual logs.

3. Separate billable hours from non-billable ones

On a daily basis, some work becomes billable, while others don’t. So, it is important to separate time spent on client work (billable) from time spent on internal tasks or administrative work (non-billable). If not categorized correctly, this can lead to clients being overcharged or undercharged.

But don’t worry, you can just clarify with your team which work should be counted as billable or non-billable in the first place. Or, in TimePlanner, it is just a matter of clicking a button to turn any time spent on work into billable hours.

And if you ask me, internal meetings, training, or research time can be marked as non-billable, while all client-related tasks are categorized as billable. This separation reduces errors and ensures that clients only get billed for relevant work.

4. Track and calculate billable hours

After tracking time, the next step is to calculate the total revenue generated from billable hours. If you’re managing multiple clients or projects with different hourly rates, it can be challenging to ensure accurate calculations without a proper tool.

Therefore, understanding how to track billable hours (especially in Jira) is extremely important. Besides, adding and calculating hours from various team members can lead to human error, especially when dealing with complex billing structures.

With TimePlanner, you can track and calculate the total billable hours for each project and team member. The tool aggregates the hours worked and applies the correct hourly rate to generate accurate billing amounts.

Reports for Billable vs. Non-billable hours

Additionally, you can generate detailed reports that give you an overview of total billable hours across all team members and projects, and compare scheduled vs actual cost. TimePlanner automates this process, ensuring all hours are accounted for and calculated correctly, without the need for manual work.

How to reduce non-billable hours

1. Identify where non-billable time goes

Reducing non-billable hours begins with visibility. Therefore, project managers should regularly review time tracking and reporting data to understand where non-billable time is being spent and why.

Patterns often emerge around recurring meetings, manual administrative work, or unclear responsibilities. Therefore, this analysis helps distinguish between necessary non-billable activities and those that provide little value.

Without this level of insight, attempts to reduce non-billable time are often based on assumptions rather than facts.

2. Improve processes and workflows

After identifying low-value non-billable activities, process improvements can significantly reduce wasted time. This may include streamlining meetings, clarifying agendas, standardizing documentation, or improving handoffs between teams.

Automating repetitive administrative tasks, such as reporting or status updates, can also free up meaningful capacity. From a cost-tracking perspective, even small workflow improvements can lead to measurable reductions in overhead when applied consistently across a team or organization.

3. Set clear guidelines

Clear guidelines help teams make better decisions about how they track and allocate their time. Project managers should define what qualifies as billable and non-billable work and share these definitions across all projects.

Besides, ambiguity often leads to inconsistent tracking and unreliable data. Clear rules also prevent billable and non-billable work from being mixed in a single time entry, which improves reporting accuracy and makes cost analysis more meaningful.

4. Use the right tools

The right tools can dramatically reduce the effort required to track time while improving data quality. Centralized time tracking systems with clear categorization, real-time reporting, and integration with project and cost management tools help teams spend less time logging work and more time delivering value.

For project managers, these tools provide the visibility needed to make informed decisions about capacity, costs, and priorities without adding unnecessary administrative burden to the team.

Conclusion on billable vs. non-billable hours

The distinction between billable and non-billable hours is crucial for making informed decisions about project costs, resource allocation, and team efficiency. Billable hours directly affect revenue, while non-billable hours highlight the necessary but often overlooked work that supports project success.

By tracking both types effectively, project managers can ensure transparent cost management, optimize team workflows, and maintain a healthy balance between client delivery and internal operations. Ultimately, understanding and managing both billable and non-billable time enables smarter decisions, healthier teams, and more profitable projects.

The post Billable vs. Non-Billable Hours: What you need to know appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.

In this article, we’ll explore how TimePlanner, a Jira plugin, can enhance your timesheet approval process, foster transparency, and help create a healthier timesheet culture within your organization.

Understanding the Timesheet Approval Process

A timesheet approval process is a system where employees submit their recorded work hours, and those records are reviewed and approved by their managers or HR before finalizing them for payroll. The process ensures that employees are compensated accurately and that all work-related activities are logged properly for analysis and budgeting.

In many companies, timesheet approval involves several steps, such as:

• Employees logging their worked hours on a daily, weekly, or biweekly basis.
• Supervisors or managers reviewing and verifying the submitted timesheets for accuracy and compliance.
• Approvals or rejections sent to HR or payroll teams for final processing.
• Reporting and tracking for auditing purposes.

Why a Healthy Timesheet Culture Matters

A healthy timesheet culture is crucial for ensuring that time tracking isn’t just an administrative task—it’s a vital part of improving overall organizational efficiency. When employees clearly understand the process, feel empowered to track their time, and managers have the visibility needed for data-driven decisions, the result is a streamlined, transparent workflow.

Key Benefits of a Healthy Timesheet Culture:

• Accountability: Employees are encouraged to take ownership of their time, ensuring accurate tracking and more responsible work habits.
• Transparency: Clear visibility into how time is allocated across teams and projects ensures alignment, making it easier to address discrepancies before they become issues.
• Operational Efficiency: A smooth timesheet approval process reduces administrative bottlenecks, helping teams focus on more strategic work.
• Compliance: Consistent time tracking ensures your organization adheres to labor laws, billing practices, and internal policies.
• Work-Life Balance: By setting clear expectations and tracking hours accurately, you can prevent overwork and promote a healthier work-life balance.

Who Needs Timesheets?

Timesheets are essential for any role where time needs to be tracked and tied to specific projects, clients, or budgets. Key roles include:

• Client-Facing Employees: Consultants and account managers who need to track hours for billable client tasks.

• Project-Based Teams: Creatives, developers, and other project-based employees who need to track time for various projects and clients.

• Freelancers and Contractors: External workers who track their hours for invoicing purposes.

• Support and Admin Teams: HR, operations, and admin staff who contribute to internal functions and processes.

How TimePlanner Enhances Your Timesheet Approval Process

TimePlanner is a Jira plugin designed to streamline timesheet management by automating key steps in the approval process. Here’s how it helps improve your timesheet approval system:

Clear Timesheet Submission and Approval Workflow

Traditional timesheet management often suffers from confusion, missed deadlines, or errors due to a lack of clarity in the approval process. TimePlanner simplifies this by providing a clear, well-defined workflow, ensuring that both employees and managers know exactly what is expected:

Step 1: Logging Hours with the Timelog Board

Employees begin by logging their hours directly into TimePlanner via the Timelog Board. This feature allows team members to enter time for specific tasks manually or use the Start timer for automatic tracking. The system helps ensure accurate logging with minimal manual input, streamlining the process and saving time.

Step 2: Submitting the Timesheet for Review

Once hours are logged, employees simply submit their timesheets with a click of a button. The system automatically updates the status of the timesheet to Pending, signaling to managers that the timesheet is ready for review.

In cases where employees are unavailable to submit their timesheets, Team Admins or Leaders can submit timesheets on behalf of employees, ensuring a smooth workflow without bottlenecks.

Step 3: Review and Approval Process by Managers

Once the timesheet is submitted, the manager receives a notification within the app or via email. This eliminates the need for HR or team leads to manually track submissions or send reminder emails—tasks that can delay the review process.

With TimePlanner, managers can quickly access the Timesheet Approval page, where they can review timesheet details like hours worked, billable hours, and project allocations. Managers can then approve or reject timesheets with just a few clicks, speeding up the process and improving accuracy.

Step 4: Review & Export for Your Timesheet Data

After submission and approval, TimePlanner makes it easy to review all logged hours through the Timesheet page. This page provides a clear view of your timesheet history, showing the status of each entry (approved, pending, or rejected).

For personal reference or sharing outside of TimePlanner, you can use the Export feature to download your timesheet data. This allows for easy integration with other tools, reporting, or offline access.

Role-Based Permissions for Streamlined Approvals

Once the timesheet is submitted, it must be approved by the designated team leader, project manager, or HR representative. TimePlanner allows you to assign approval permissions based on your team’s structure, ensuring that the appropriate individual has the authority to approve timesheets.

Billable vs. Non-Billable Hours Tracking

Accurately tracking billable and non-billable hours is crucial for proper invoicing and ensuring project profitability. Differentiating these two categories helps prevent overbilling clients and ensures that internal costs are monitored appropriately.

In TimePlanner, employees can log their time as either Billable or Non-Billable. By tagging hours correctly, managers can easily review these entries during the approval process to ensure that billable hours are accurately captured for client invoicing and non-billable hours are tracked for internal purposes. This seamless integration keeps both project and financial tracking aligned with company objectives.

Timesheet Locking for Finalization

After a manager approves a timesheet in TimePlanner, the system automatically locks the entry, preventing any modifications. This feature is vital for payroll accuracy and client invoicing, as it ensures the timesheet remains unchanged after approval. Additionally, locking timesheets creates a clear audit trail, which is essential for record-keeping and compliance purposes.

If you need to make any modifications after approval, you can recall the timesheet. This feature allows you to reopen the timesheet, make necessary adjustments, and resubmit it for approval.

Conclusion

TimePlanner takes the complexity and manual effort out of timesheet approval, streamlining the entire process from submission to finalization. By automating key tasks, simplifying approval workflows, and offering role-based permissions, it ensures that your timesheet management is more efficient, accurate, and transparent.

The post HR Expert Tips: Building a Healthy Timesheet Approval Process for Your Company with Jira appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.

This is where TeamBoard ProScheduler comes in. It extends Jira with visual timelines, real-time capacity insights, and cross-project visibility, making it possible to create annual plans that reflect real availability and delivery constraints.

In this use case, we’ll walk through how teams can build a realistic, capacity-aware annual plan using ProScheduler.

What is annual planning?

Annual planning is the process of defining an organization’s goals, initiatives, and deliverables for the year ahead and mapping them into a structured execution plan. It provides a high-level view of what needs to be done, when it should happen, and who will be responsible, helping teams align strategy with day-to-day work.

In tools like Jira, annual planning goes beyond tracking individual tasks. It focuses on coordinating multiple projects, managing shared resources, and ensuring priorities remain aligned as business needs evolve throughout the year.

Benefits of Annual Planning

Effective annual planning delivers value throughout the year by providing clarity and structure.

• Clear priorities and focus: Teams gain a shared understanding of what matters most, reducing distractions and conflicting initiatives.

• Better resource allocation: Planning ahead helps teams distribute time, people, and budget more realistically, avoiding overload and burnout.

• Improved decision-making: With defined goals in place, teams can quickly evaluate new requests and opportunities against strategic priorities.

• Greater visibility and alignment: Stakeholders gain a clear picture of how projects connect to company goals and how progress will be measured.

• Proactive risk management: Identifying dependencies and constraints early allows teams to address issues before they impact delivery.

What Should Be Included in an Annual Plan?

A strong annual plan typically includes the following elements:

• Strategic objectives: High-level outcomes the organization wants to achieve

• Key initiatives: Major programs or projects that support those objectives

• Projects and deliverables: Concrete work items and milestones

• Timeline: A yearly view organized by quarters or months

• Ownership: Clear accountability for teams, roles, or individuals

• Resource allocation: People, time, and budget assigned to each initiative

• Dependencies and risks: Factors that could impact delivery and require monitoring

How to create an Annual Plan with ProScheduler

Creating an annual plan in TeamBoard ProScheduler involves breaking down yearly goals into manageable Jira work items, allocating resources based on real capacity, and visualizing the full year using Gantt charts and schedule boards.

Install TeamBoard ProScheduler from the Atlassian Marketplace and open it directly within your Jira project. This ensures all planning stays fully connected to Jira work items.

Step 1: Define Project Scope

Define the high-level goals for the year, such as product launches, marketing campaigns, or internal initiatives. These goals set the direction for the annual plan and act as the foundation for all projects and tasks created later.

In TeamBoard ProScheduler, these goals are typically created as top-level initiatives and visualized in the Gantt view. The Gantt view allows teams to see the scope of the year at different levels of detail:

• Year view for strategic, high-level planning

• Quarter or month view to understand major phases and overlaps

• Week view when refining timelines and preparing for execution

Set Working Capacity

Configure working hours, holidays, and days off for each team member in the App Settings. This step ensures capacity planning is based on real working time rather than optimistic assumptions, helping teams avoid overcommitment.

Create Teams

Navigate to the Resource tab to add team members and organize them into teams or groups. Grouping resources makes it easier to manage shared capacity, compare workloads, and plan work across multiple teams.

Step 2: Define and Structure Annual Tasks

Break Down Work

Break large annual initiatives into smaller, manageable Jira issues such as Epics, Stories, or Tasks. This makes work easier to estimate, schedule, and track throughout the year.

Estimate Durations

Add time estimates to each task. By enabling “Plan with original estimation field” in settings, ProScheduler automatically distributes estimated hours across the scheduled duration, creating a more realistic view of workload over time.

Create Milestones

In the Gantt or Timeline view, convert key events—such as quarterly reviews, major releases, or final delivery dates—into milestones. Milestones help teams track progress toward major goals and keep the annual plan outcome-focused.

Step 3: Schedule and Assign Resources

Use the Schedule Board

Drag and drop Jira tasks onto the Schedule Board and place them in the appropriate weeks or months. This visual approach helps teams spread work evenly across the year and identify potential scheduling conflicts early.

Allocate Resources

Assign team members to tasks directly on the Schedule Board. As assignments are made, ProScheduler visualizes individual and team workload, making it easy to spot over-allocation and rebalance work before delivery is impacted.

Set Recurring Tasks

For ongoing monthly or quarterly activities, create recurring tasks directly within the scheduling interface. Supported recurrence options include daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly, ensuring recurring work is fully accounted for in the annual plan.

Step 4: Visualize and Refine the Plan (Gantt /Timeline)

Link Dependencies

In the Gantt Chart view, establish dependencies between tasks to define a logical execution sequence—for example, ensuring Q1 planning completes before Q2 execution begins.

Adjust Timelines

Drag task bars on the Gantt Chart to adjust start and end dates as priorities change. Dependent tasks automatically update, allowing teams to see the impact of changes instantly.

Identify the Critical Path

Use the Gantt chart to identify the critical path. This highlights tasks that directly affect major deadlines, helping teams focus attention where delays would have the biggest impact.

Step 5: Monitor and Track Progress

Track Progress

Monitor task status directly from the Timeline view. Progress updates remain synced with Jira, providing real-time visibility throughout the year.

Review Workload

Use the workload heatmap to ensure no team member is overbooked. This helps teams maintain sustainable workloads and prevent burnout.

Generate Reports

Use the Dashboard to access high-level insights, including scheduled versus actual time and overall resource utilization. These reports help stakeholders stay informed and support data-driven decision-making.

Final Thoughts

By using TeamBoard ProScheduler alongside Jira, teams can turn high-level goals into a clear, visual, and capacity-aware annual plan. From defining scope and structuring work to scheduling, balancing resources, and tracking progress, ProScheduler helps ensure plans are grounded in reality and adaptable as priorities change.

The post How to create an Annual Plan with ProScheduler appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.

Jira is one of the most widely used platforms for managing work, especially for software development and IT teams. It excels at tracking issues, supporting agile workflows, and keeping execution moving forward. However, as organizations grow and projects become more complex, many teams begin to use Jira not just for execution, but also for project planning, coordination, and reporting.

In this article, we explore the 5 biggest challenges teams face when using Jira for project planning and outline practical ways to address them effectively.

Challenge 1: Planning Without Understanding Real Capacity

When managing large projects across multiple teams, it’s easy to assume that assigning work in Jira means it can be completed as planned. Jira shows who a task is assigned to and when it is expected to be done, but it does not reflect whether that person actually has the capacity to take on the work. Technical teams may track progress diligently in Jira, yet project managers and stakeholders lack visibility into availability, competing commitments, or workload constraints.

As a result, plans are often built on assumptions rather than reality. Team members become overloaded without anyone noticing, deadlines slip unexpectedly, and project managers are forced into reactive replanning. These issues are especially common in environments where people contribute to multiple projects, work across time zones, or have varying schedules due to holidays or personal time off.

How to overcome

To handle advanced planning needs that Jira does not support natively, teams can integrate purpose-built plugins from the Atlassian Marketplace. These apps extend Jira’s capabilities without requiring heavy customization or complex configuration.

TeamBoard ProScheduler is one such plugin designed specifically for realistic project and resource planning in Jira. Its visual Schedule Board makes it easy to plan tasks and allocate resources based on actual availability, working hours, roles, and holidays. In addition, the Workload view uses clear color indicators to show who is overloaded or underutilized, allowing project managers to rebalance assignments early and keep delivery plans realistic and sustainable.

Challenge 2: Overwhelming Complexity and Configuration

Jira is known for its flexibility, but without clear governance, that flexibility can quickly turn into complexity. Over time, teams often introduce numerous custom fields, workflows, and schemes to solve specific local needs. While each customization may seem reasonable on its own, the cumulative effect can make Jira difficult to navigate, hard to maintain, and intimidating for non-technical users.

This complexity has a direct impact on project planning and collaboration. New team members face a steep learning curve, onboarding slows down, and inconsistent usage leads to unreliable data. Instead of supporting productivity, Jira can become a system that only a few power users fully understand, limiting its value for broader planning and coordination.

How to overcome

The key to managing complexity is discipline and simplicity. Teams should start with standardized workflows and configurations that can support the majority of projects, customizing only when there is a clear and justified need. Regular audits of custom fields, workflows, and permissions help keep the system clean by removing outdated or redundant configurations before they become a burden.

Challenge 3: Poor Visibility into Dependencies and Delivery Risk

Jira allows teams to link issues using relationships such as “blocks” and “is blocked by,” but these links are largely informational. They don’t actively shape schedules or clearly show how a delay in one task will affect everything that follows. As a result, dependencies often exist in Jira without being fully understood or managed.

This becomes especially problematic in larger projects or cross-team initiatives. A single delayed task can quietly push an entire delivery off track, yet the impact may remain hidden until a key milestone is already at risk—when options are limited and costly.

How to overcome

Teams can use TeamBoard ProScheduler to visualize dependencies and identify blocked work at a higher level. ProScheduler transforms dependencies from passive links into active planning elements by displaying them directly on a timeline and automatically adjusting schedules when work changes. This makes delivery risk visible early, allowing teams to spot fragile parts of the plan and adjust proactively—before deadlines slip.

Challenge 4: Difficulty Visualizing the “Big Picture” (Portfolio Management)

Jira is effective for tracking work at the team level, but it often lacks clear, high-level roadmap visibility for cross-functional initiatives and portfolio planning. When work is spread across multiple projects and teams, it becomes difficult to understand how day-to-day tasks connect to strategic goals or how changes in one initiative impact others. As a result, leadership and program managers may struggle to maintain alignment and make informed decisions.

How to overcome

A strong starting point is structuring Jira issues using a clear hierarchy—such as Initiatives → Epics → Stories → Tasks—to ensure that individual pieces of work roll up into meaningful business objectives. However, structure alone does not provide the full picture needed for portfolio planning.

TeamBoard ProScheduler extends Jira with portfolio-level visibility by bringing multiple projects, initiatives, and timelines into a single, unified schedule. It allows teams to visualize how work aligns over time, understand cross-project dependencies, and see how resources are shared across initiatives. With this big-picture view, organizations can better align execution with strategy, adjust priorities proactively, and communicate progress clearly across the portfolio.

Challenge 5: Inadequate Out-of-the-Box Reporting

Jira offers a variety of built-in reports and dashboards, but these are often too generic to provide the specific, actionable insights that teams need. While standard reports can show issue counts or sprint progress, they may fall short when it comes to understanding team performance, delivery velocity, or progress toward long-term goals—especially in complex or cross-team environments.

As a result, project managers and stakeholders often struggle to extract meaningful information without additional effort. Important questions require manual analysis, and reporting can become time-consuming and difficult to maintain.

How to overcome

Teams can improve reporting by creating customized dashboards using Jira’s built-in widgets, such as Two-Dimensional Filter Statistics, to track key performance indicators relevant to their goals. In addition, learning to use Jira Query Language (JQL) enables more precise filtering and reporting, allowing teams to tailor views and reports to their specific needs. With well-designed dashboards and effective use of JQL, Jira’s reporting can become far more informative and useful for decision-making.

Conclusion

By understanding these challenges and applying the right practices, whether through better structure, clearer governance, or enhanced planning and reporting approaches, teams can get far more value from Jira. Addressing these gaps helps organizations move from reactive delivery to proactive planning, ensuring that daily work stays aligned with broader goals and that project decisions are based on clear, reliable information.

The post Top 5 biggest challenges when using Jira for project planning (How to overcome them) appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.

When teams work in Jira every day, it makes sense to track billable hours there as well. Sadly, Jira doesn’t solve this problem automatically (or entirely, I would say).

In this article, we’ll walk through how to track billable hours in Jira in a structured and realistic way. We’ll also focus on building the right habits, selecting the optimal setup, and utilizing data to support more effective planning, forecasting, and cost control.

Why tracking billable hours matters

Billable hour tracking is often perceived as an administrative requirement, but for project leaders, it is a strategic capability. When done well, it creates visibility and control across delivery, finance, and capacity planning.

1. Financial visibility and cost control

At its core, billable hour tracking answers a fundamental question: How much does this work actually cost us?

Without accurate time data, project costs are often estimated using assumptions rather than facts. This makes it difficult to:

• Understand whether projects are profitable
• Detect cost overruns early
• Adjust scope, staffing, or timelines proactively

By consistently tracking billable hours, project managers gain a real-time view of how effort translates into cost. This visibility is critical for managing budgets, especially in long-running or complex engagements.

2. Project profitability and margin protection

Many projects appear successful from a delivery standpoint while quietly eroding margins. Unplanned work, excessive rework, or poorly estimated tasks often go unnoticed until it is too late.

So, billable hour tracking helps leaders compare estimated effort with actual billable time and identify where non-billable work is consuming capacity. Additionally, they can identify which projects or clients consistently become less profitable.

Over time, this data becomes important for refining estimates, improving pricing models, and protecting margins.

3. Better forecasting and planning

Historical billable hour data is one of the most valuable inputs for future planning. It allows project managers to:

• Forecast delivery timelines more accurately
• Estimate future projects based on real effort, not guesswork
• Plan staffing levels with confidence

Without this data, planning relies heavily on intuition. With it, leaders can make evidence-based decisions that reduce risk and improve predictability.

4. Clearer accountability and client transparency

Accurate billable tracking also supports trust—both internally and externally.

Internally, it clarifies expectations:

• What work is billable
• How time should be logged
• How effort contributes to business outcomes

Externally, it enables:

• Clear, defensible invoices
• Transparent reporting for clients
• Fewer disputes about time and scope

For service-oriented teams, this transparency strengthens long-term client relationships.

5. Sustainable team utilization

From a leadership perspective, billable hour data is not just about revenue—it is also about people.

Tracking billable vs. non-billable time helps managers:

• Identify overworked or underutilized team members
• Balance workloads more fairly
• Detect burnout risks early

Used responsibly, billable hour data supports healthier, more sustainable teams.

How to track billable hours in Jira specifically

Tracking billable hours in Jira is less about one feature and more about a system: definitions, expectations, structure, and reporting. Below is a step-by-step approach that works well for most teams.

1. Define billable vs. non-billable activities

Before touching Jira settings or tools, the most important step is alignment.

As a project manager, you need to clearly define what counts as billable time for your organization, such as:

• Client development or implementation work
• Testing and quality assurance are tied to client delivery
• Consulting, configuration, or advisory work
• Client-requested meetings or workshops

Meanwhile, non-billable work typically includes:

• Internal meetings and administration
• Training and onboarding
• Pre-sales or internal research
• Rework caused by internal process issues

Additionally, teams must decide where the billing decision is made. Some organizations mark entire issues as billable, while others allow individual worklog entries to be billable or non-billable.

Keep in mind, issue-level billing is simpler but less flexible, while worklog-level billing provides accuracy at the cost of added discipline.

For more details about the difference between the two, please read What you need to know about Billable vs. Non-billable hours.

2. Establish clear expectations and billing policies

Once billable work is defined, expectations must be made explicit next, and this is where leadership alignment matters most. For that, billing policies should clearly outline when time must be logged, the level of detail required for worklog descriptions, and the process for handling exceptions.

For example, teams should know whether logging time at the end of the week is acceptable or whether daily logging is required to ensure accuracy.

Besides, clear expectations also reduce tension between delivery teams and finance. When billing rules are documented and shared – ideally in a central place such as Confluence – there is less room for misunderstanding and fewer last-minute corrections during invoicing.

From our perspective, consistency is more valuable than strictness. Therefore, policies should encourage reliable behavior rather than punishing mistakes.

3. Choose your tracking method and set up Jira

3.1 Using Jira’s built-in time tracking

Jira’s native time tracking allows users to log time directly on issues. For many teams, this is the natural starting point. It captures who worked on what and for how long, which already provides basic visibility into effort.

To adapt this for billable tracking, teams often rely on conventions such as labels, components, or custom fields to indicate billable work. Some teams also structure projects so that all issues within a project are assumed to be billable.

This approach works best when billing needs are simple and reporting requirements are limited. However, as complexity grows, its limitations become more visible.

3.2 Adding structure with custom fields and workflows

As teams scale, manual conventions are hardly enough. Therefore, adding structure through custom fields and workflow rules helps enforce consistency.

For example, requiring a “Billable” field before an issue can be moved to Done ensures that billing decisions are made deliberately. Workflow validations can also prevent issues from progressing if time has not been logged, reducing gaps in data.

While this adds governance, it also introduces overhead. Project managers should balance control with usability to avoid creating friction that discourages accurate logging.

3.3 Using Jira apps for billable hour tracking

But when cost visibility becomes critical, many teams turn to dedicated Jira apps to avoid any potential risks. These tools typically extend Jira’s time tracking with explicit billable flags, rate management, and automated cost calculations.

For example, TeamBoard TimePlanner enables teams to track billable hours in Jira by linking planned work, logged time, and cost reporting. This helps project managers maintain visibility into delivery effort and financial impact.

How to track billable hours with TimePlanner

For project managers, the value lies in reducing manual effort and increasing confidence in reports. Instead of assembling data from multiple sources, leaders can rely on consistent, system-generated insights that support actual vs. scheduled cost reporting.

4. Standardize time logging habits across the team

Even the most carefully designed system will fail if time logging habits are inconsistent.

From a management standpoint, the objective is not perfect precision but dependable patterns. Encouraging daily logging helps reduce memory errors, while requiring meaningful descriptions ensures that time entries remain useful beyond raw numbers.

It is also important to explain why time logging matters. When team members understand that time data supports planning, staffing, and realistic timelines—not micromanagement—they are more likely to engage with the process responsibly.

5. Organize Jira projects for billing clarity

Project structure plays a major role in how easily billable hours can be analyzed.

Some teams prefer one project per client, which simplifies reporting and billing but can increase administrative overhead. Others group work by product or service and use components or epics to represent clients, contracts, or phases.

Regardless of the model, the guiding principle should be clarity. A well-structured Jira setup allows project managers to answer basic cost and billing questions without extensive manual filtering or explanation.

6. Review, approve, and lock billable time

Last but not least, billable hour tracking should not be entirely self-service. Review and approval processes help maintain trust in the data.

Many teams should conduct weekly or monthly reviews where managers validate logged time before using it for invoicing or reporting. Therefore, locking past periods helps prevent retroactive changes that can undermine financial accuracy.

These steps protect both the organization and the team by ensuring that billing data reflects reality and is not adjusted under pressure.

How TimePlanner helps track billable hours in Jira

Jira can capture time spent, but it does not connect time tracking with cost planning or financial visibility. This is where TeamBoard TimePlanner extends Jira by linking planned work, billable intent, and actual cost, helping project managers and leaders manage billable hours more deliberately.

• Plan billable work at the task level: Define billable and non-billable tasks upfront in Jira, aligning delivery activities with budget expectations before execution begins.
• Apply flexible billing rates: Assign billing rates by task, role, individual, or project so logged time translates automatically into accurate cost and revenue figures.
• Log time directly within Jira workflows: Capture billable effort in real time or retrospectively without switching tools, improving data completeness and reliability.
• Track time accurately with task-based timers: Use built-in timers linked to Jira issues to reduce underreported time, especially for teams working across multiple tasks or clients.
• Compare planned vs. actual costs with reports: Review scheduled and actual cost reports to identify variances early and support informed decisions around scope, staffing, and billing.
• Create a shared view for delivery, finance, and leadership: Connect planning, execution, and cost data in Jira to support consistent reporting, governance, and decision-making.

For more details, please check out What are Billable Hours & How to track it using TeamBoard TimePlanner.

Best practices for tracking billable hours effectively

Tools like TimePlanner enable tracking, but leadership discipline determines whether the data is reliable enough to support financial decisions. Remember, strong billable-hour practices are built on consistency, clarity, and trust.

Here are a few tips on how to track billable hours more efficiently.

1. Keep the tracking setup simple and scalable

A common mistake in billable tracking is overengineering the whole thing from the start. Complex configurations may look robust on paper, but often reduce adoption and data accuracy in practice.

Instead, you should prioritize a setup that answers core questions—such as total billable hours, utilization, and cost exposure—without creating unnecessary friction for delivery teams. As reporting needs mature, additional structure can be introduced incrementally. Scalability comes from gradual refinement, not upfront complexity.

2. Clearly document and communicate billing rules

Billing rules should be treated as operating policy, not informal guidance. Clear documentation ensures that delivery, finance, and leadership share the same understanding of what is considered billable and why.

This documentation should include:

• Definitions of billable and non-billable activities
• Examples of common and edge-case scenarios
• Guidance on how to log mixed or partial billable work

Regular reviews of these rules help ensure alignment with evolving service offerings, contract terms, and financial objectives.

3. Encourage consistent and timely time logging

Timeliness directly affects accuracy. When time is logged long after work is completed, estimates replace facts, reducing the reliability of cost data.

Leadership should set expectations around regular logging—ideally daily or shortly after work is performed—and reinforce that consistency matters more than granular precision. Reliable patterns enable better forecasting and reduce downstream reconciliation effort for finance teams.

This is also where TimePlanner’s Stopwatch Timer comes in handy. It enables users to track their work time precisely in real life, then log it to their timesheet for submission and review.

4. Require meaningful worklog descriptions

Time entries without context limit their value for review, billing, and audit purposes. Short but meaningful descriptions help explain how effort was spent and support transparent client communication.

From a governance perspective, clear descriptions also protect the organization by providing an auditable trail of delivery activity. This becomes increasingly important as organizations scale or operate in regulated environments.

5. Review billable data regularly, not only at invoicing

Billable tracking should be reviewed continuously, not just during monthly or quarterly invoicing cycles. Regular reviews allow project managers and finance partners to identify trends early, such as increasing non-billable effort or deviations from planned scope.

As a result, this proactive review cycle shifts billable tracking from a reactive accounting task to an active management practice, enabling earlier course correction.

6. Combine billable tracking with capacity and planning insights

Billable data is most valuable when paired with capacity and planning information. Understanding how much billable work the organization can realistically deliver allows leadership to make informed decisions about staffing, prioritization, and investment.

When billable demand consistently exceeds available capacity, risks to delivery quality and employee well-being increase. Conversely, low utilization may indicate pricing, pipeline, or resourcing challenges that require attention.

Final thoughts

Tracking billable hours in Jira is not just a technical exercise—it’s a leadership responsibility. With clear definitions, consistent habits, and the right level of tooling, Jira can become a reliable source of truth for tracking costs and informed decision-making.

Start simple, build structure where needed, and scale with tools that support both delivery and financial visibility. When done well, billable hour tracking helps teams work more sustainably, projects run more predictably, and businesses grow more confidently.

The post How to Track Billable Hours in Jira Effectively appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.

This article walks through how Jira and TimePlanner can be structured together to support account tracking at scale.

What Is Account Tracking?

Account tracking is the practice of monitoring, managing, and reporting on all work, time, and budget associated with a specific client (account), rather than focusing only on individual tasks or projects. It is commonly used in professional services, consulting, IT services, and agency environments where work for a single client often spans multiple projects, teams, and time periods.

Account tracking is important because it provides visibility into how effort translates into cost, revenue, and overall client health. Instead of relying on manual reports or spreadsheets, teams can understand whether an account is staying within budget, being delivered profitably, and consuming capacity as expected.

How to Use Jira for Account Tracking

Step 1: Setting Up Your Account Tracking Project in Jira

Jira is the system of record for execution. This phase focuses on structuring Jira so delivery data is clean, consistent, and ready to be used for account-level tracking later.

1. Create Dedicated Jira Projects

Start by creating Jira projects that represent how work is executed in your organization. A Jira project should group related tasks that share a common workflow, team, or delivery model.

Depending on the nature of the work, teams typically use:

• Jira Software for development and sprint-based delivery

• Jira Service Management for support requests and client-facing portals

• Jira Work Management for non-technical or operational work

2. Define Account-Level Custom Fields

To prepare Jira data for account-level tracking, configure a small set of custom fields that capture essential client context on issues or, where appropriate, at the project level.

Common account-related fields include:

• Client name or account

• Contract type (Retainer, Fixed Project, Time & Materials)

• Billing category (Billable / Non-Billable)

• Service line (Design, Development, SEO, Support)

• Account owner

These fields make it easier to filter work, keep reporting consistent, and pass structured data into TimePlanner. Keep the number of fields limited so teams can complete them reliably as part of their normal workflow.

3. Configure Issue Types and Hierarchy

Use Jira’s issue hierarchy to break down client work in a structured, predictable way.

A common agency hierarchy looks like:

• Epics → Major client deliverables or phases.

• Stories or Tasks → Individual pieces of work delivered to the client.

• Sub-tasks → Detailed steps or internal activities.

This structure helps teams track progress, log time accurately, and understand how individual tasks relate to larger client work.

4. Define Workflows That Reflect Delivery Health

Establish workflows that clearly show where work stands and what comes next. A typical delivery workflow might include: To Do → In Progress → Review → Approved / Done.

For support or client-request projects, additional statuses such as Waiting on Client may be useful.

Using clear and consistent workflows across projects helps teams identify bottlenecks early, understand delivery status at a glance, and avoid closing work before it is truly complete.

Step 2: Importing Client Data and Contacts in TimePlanner

Once your Jira projects are set up, you must create client profiles in TeamBoard TimePlanner. These profiles serve as the central repository for client information and will be linked to Jira projects for account-level tracking.

The goal of this step is to ensure every client exists in TimePlanner with accurate details before tracking time, cost, and capacity.

To create a new client:

1. From the left-hand navigation, click Clients to access the client management page.

2. Click the Add Client button in the top-right corner

3. Fill in the following basic client details: name, phone, email, address, etc.

4. Link the TimePlanner Account to Jira Projects: In the Project field, search for and select the Jira project or projects associated with this client. A single client can be linked to multiple Jira projects, which is common when work is split across delivery, support, or different service lines.

Learn more: How Outsourcing Companies Can Manage Multiple Client Projects in Jira 

Step 3: Assigning Accounts in the Planning View

When scheduling work in TimePlanner, you assign a client account to each planned task. This ensures that planned hours and later logged time are attributed to the correct client for cost, capacity, and reporting.

• Open the Planning Dialog: Navigate to the Schedules board, where you see your team members and their timelines.

• Create or Edit a Task: Click and drag on the timeline to create a new task, or click an existing Jira issue to open its detail panel.

• Select the Account: In the Account dropdown menu, you will see a list of clients you created in Step 2. Select the appropriate client.

Step 4: Managing Billable and Non-Billable Work

When planning or editing a task in TimePlanner, you must specify whether the work is Billable or Non-billable. This setting acts as a financial tag that tells the system how to treat the hours for reporting and billing.

• Billable: Hours marked as billable are included in revenue, billing, and profitability reports.

• Non-billable: Hours marked as non-billable are excluded from revenue calculations but are still counted for capacity and utilization tracking.

Selecting the correct option is important. It ensures that client invoices, revenue reports, and utilization metrics are accurate without requiring manual adjustments later. Once saved, any time logged against the task will follow this billable setting automatically.

Step 5: Monitoring Team Workload and Capacity

Once tasks are planned and assigned to client accounts, TeamBoard TimePlanner provides real-time visibility into team workload and capacity.

TimePlanner shows each team member’s available time versus planned time, making it easy to see who is fully booked, underutilized, or overallocated. This helps ensure that work is distributed evenly and that no one is consistently overbooked.

If a team member is overloaded or at risk of burnout, you can quickly adjust the plan by:

• Reassigning tasks to another team member

• Moving work to a different date

• Reducing or redistributing planned hours

Making these adjustments early helps maintain balanced workloads, reduces burnout, and keeps client delivery on track.

Step 6: Integrating with other tools

Deadlines are critical in account-based delivery. When one task or project slips, it can impact the entire client account. To manage this complexity, TimePlanner can be used alongside TeamBoard ProScheduler. This integration provides more advanced scheduling and dependency management across projects.

• Timeline & Gantt Views: Use TimePlanner’s Gantt Chart to visualize the roadmap for an account. You can see how a “Design Phase” in one project is a prerequisite for a “Development Phase” in another.

• Dependency Mapping: Link tasks across project silos. If the client delays their “Asset Delivery” task, TimePlanner will automatically shift the start dates for the subsequent production tasks.

Step 7: Monitoring Account Health in Real Time

Finally, use the Cost Report in TeamBoard TimePlanner to monitor account health as work progresses.

The Cost Report shows how planned and logged time translates into cost and billable value for each client. By reviewing this report regularly, you can see whether an account is staying within budget or moving toward an overrun.

With the Cost Report, you can track:

• Actual cost versus planned or expected cost

• How much budget has been consumed and how much remains

This visibility allows teams to identify scope creep, margin erosion, or budget risks early and take corrective action before the billing period ends.

Final Thoughts

With clear project structures in Jira and consistent use of TimePlanner for planning, billing, and reporting, teams can reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and maintain a clear view of account status. The result is better control over workload, budgets, and delivery outcomes, allowing teams to manage accounts proactively instead of reactively.

The post How to Use Jira for Account Tracking appeared first on TeamBoard - Resource planning, project management and Gantt Chart for Jira, monday.com.