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YouTrack tracks time through issue work items: enable time tracking for a project, then record effort on issues and review it with reports. Estimates and spent time are separate values, and the spent-time total is calculated from work items rather than edited directly. This guide follows the YouTrack Cloud 2026.2 documentation; labels or availability can differ on YouTrack Server and in later releases.

How do I track time in YouTrack?

In YouTrack Cloud 2026.2, a project administrator enables time tracking in the project settings. YouTrack uses period-type fields for estimates and spent time. If the project does not already have suitable fields, YouTrack can add them as part of setup. Once configured, spent time is calculated from the issue’s work items.

  1. Open the project’s settings and enable Time Tracking. You need project-administration access.
  2. Review the estimation and spent-time fields YouTrack selects or adds.
  3. Open an issue and add a work item. Enter the duration, select a work type, and add a description or other useful attributes.
  4. Review the issue’s work items and reports to verify that entries are categorized and included as expected.

The Cloud tutorial accepts minute, hour, day, and week abbreviations for durations. Use a consistent convention across the team so recorded effort is comparable.

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Estimates are not recorded time

An estimate represents expected effort; spent time represents effort logged through work items. Adding an estimate does not create a work item, and logging a work item does not revise the estimate. Keeping both lets a team compare planned and recorded effort without conflating the two.

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Protect manually entered spent-time values before enabling tracking

When YouTrack converts an existing spent-time field into the calculated field used by time tracking, manually entered values in that field are discarded. JetBrains recommends preserving them in a report and, if they must remain part of the record, adding them back as work items. Do this before changing the field configuration. YouTrack Cloud: Time Tracking.

How do work items and work types organize effort?

A work item is the unit YouTrack uses to record time against an issue. Along with duration, it can include a work type, description, and configured attributes. Work types let teams distinguish effort such as development, testing, or documentation rather than treating every logged hour as interchangeable.

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YouTrack includes default work types, and administrators can customize work-item attributes globally or for an individual project. Define categories that answer a real reporting question, and keep them manageable: overly broad types hide differences, while too many types make consistent entry harder. Work item attributes.

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Which YouTrack report should I use?

Need Use What it shows
How much time was spent across projects, by whom, or on what kind of work? Time Report Time totals summarized and grouped by criteria such as project, user, or work category.
How is time allocated over calendar periods? Timesheet Report Allocations by user or issue across daily, weekly, or monthly periods.

Choose the report based on the question, not just the available chart: a project-level total and a calendar-style view answer different questions. You can add a Time Tracking Report widget to a dashboard and configure it to show either report, with project, user, work-type, and period settings. The widget refreshes every four minutes by default unless a custom refresh rate is set. Time Tracking Report widget.

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For a downloadable extract of spent-time data, JetBrains documents a Work Item Exporter widget that exports to CSV or Excel. Work Item Exporter widget.

Can YouTrack record time automatically?

Yes. JetBrains documents workflows that create work items based on issue activity, which can reduce manual entry when the team’s rules are predictable. Automatic recording still depends on the workflow definition; confirm the trigger and stop conditions match how your team works.

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Track time from issue state changes

The In Progress Work Timer workflow records elapsed time from when an issue enters In Progress until it enters a state marked Resolved. This is suited to a process where those states reliably define the start and end of the work interval.

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A Stopwatch-style Work Timer records time when a user changes a Timer field to Stop. This gives users control over the interval while keeping the resulting record associated with the issue. Teams with other rules can customize workflows. Work Timer workflows.

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When should I use an integration instead?

YouTrack’s native work items are the straightforward choice when the time record needs to live with the issue and feed YouTrack’s reports. JetBrains also describes a YouTrack Integration plugin for JetBrains IDEs that lets users access assigned tasks and log time from the IDE. YouTrack features.

JetBrains lists Clockify, Harvest, PomoDone, TMetric, Toggl Track, Memtime, and TimeCamp among time-tracking integrations, but their functions differ. A listing alone does not establish that an integration writes entries into YouTrack work items; verify the specific integration’s behavior before choosing it. YouTrack integrations.

Clockify keeps its timer records outside YouTrack

The Clockify support article describes starting and stopping a Clockify timer from a YouTrack issue. Entries are saved in Clockify, and Clockify does not sync them with YouTrack’s native time-tracking feature. That separation matters: an external timer can support a separate timekeeping workflow, but its entries should not be assumed to appear in YouTrack work items or native reports.

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The Clockify article’s verified compatibility list names YouTrack 2022.1 and browser-extension versions from 2022. Although the page has a more recent update date, that version information is old; confirm compatibility before installing. Its setup notes say default configuration is available for some Cloud hostnames, while other hostnames or Server installations may require a custom domain. Clockify and YouTrack integration.

What should I check before choosing a setup?

  • Where the records must live: use YouTrack work items when issue-linked effort and native YouTrack reports are the requirement; use a separate service only if its separate record store suits the workflow.
  • How time should be entered: choose manual work items for direct logging, a state-triggered workflow for consistent transitions, a timer field for user-controlled intervals, or an IDE integration for in-editor access.
  • What reporting is needed: use Time Reports for grouped totals and Timesheet Reports for daily, weekly, or monthly allocation views.
  • Who will administer it: project settings, work types, attributes, workflow changes, and extension permissions may involve different administrative scopes.
  • Deployment and team size: check current terms for YouTrack Cloud or Server and the number of users on JetBrains’ pricing page. JetBrains’ pricing page says YouTrack is free for teams up to 10 users and offers paid subscriptions for larger teams; displayed paid pricing depends on billing and team size and may change.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.