To enable time tracking in JIRA, you must first activate it and then assign permissions for users to log work on issues.
Step 1: Activating Time Tracking
- Log in as a user with the 'JIRA Administrators' global permission.
- Bring up the administration page by clicking either the 'Administration' link on the top bar or the title of the Administration box on the dashboard.
- On the panel on the left, under the title "Global Settings", click on the link labelled Time Tracking'. By default, time tracking is OFF:

- Enter a suitable value for Hours Per Day (e.g. 8). You can enter fractions if you wish.
- Enter a suitable value for Days Per Week (e.g. 5). You can enter fractions if you wish.
- Select your preferred Time Format. This will determine the format of the 'Time Spent' field when an issue is displayed.
- Select your preferred Default Unit (minutes/hours/days/weeks). This will be applied whenever your users log work on an issue without specifying a unit.
- Click Activate to turn time tracking ON.
Step 2: Allowing users to log work
To be able to log work on issues, users, groups or project roles must first be assigned permissions to the appropriate project(s) as follows:
- Once you have activated time tracking (see above) you will see the following screen:

- Click the 'Permission Schemes' link.
- Select the permission scheme associated with the project(s) for which you wish to allow work to be logged.
- Check whether the row labelled 'Work On Issues' contains the appropriate users, groups or project roles. If it doesn't, click the Add link:

- Then select the user, group or project role you wish to be able to log work on issues. Then click the 'Add' button.