Key takeaways
- Worklog360 is built for client work in Jira. It connects worklogs to clients, service-based budgets, approvals and real client invoices, with QuickBooks Online sync, in one app.
- It handles mixed billing in one budget. Fixed price, Time & Materials and Retainer services can live side by side in the same client budget, each with its own billing model.
- It closes the gap between logged and invoiced hours. Invoices are generated from approved worklogs, and those worklogs are marked as invoiced so nothing is billed twice or missed.
- ActivityTimeline is a resource planning app first. Its strength is scheduling people and capacity. Budgets and profitability come with its Advanced Edition, and its documentation describes preparing invoices by exporting a financial report to Excel.
In short: if your agency bills clients for work done in Jira, Worklog360 takes you from logged hours to a correct invoice without leaving Jira.
It usually starts with a simple question from finance: “How much can we invoice ClientX this month?”
The work is in Jira. The hours are in Jira. But the answer lives in a spreadsheet someone updates on Friday afternoons, and nobody fully trusts it.
That is the moment many agencies and consultancies start comparing Jira apps, and ActivityTimeline and Worklog360 often end up on the same shortlist. Both track time inside Jira and turn worklogs into cost and revenue. But they were built for different jobs: one to plan people, the other to run and bill client work.
This comparison is for agency owners, delivery leads, Jira admins and finance teams who bill clients for Jira work. We’ll show how Worklog360 handles the full client project lifecycle, where ActivityTimeline fits, and walk through the same client project in both.
Quick verdict: which app fits which team?
- Choose Worklog360 if your business runs on billable client work. It fits agencies, consultancies, software service companies and MSPs that sell work as Time & Materials, Fixed Price and Retainers, often in the same project, and want time tracking, budgets, approvals and invoicing connected inside Jira.
- Choose ActivityTimeline if your main challenge is scheduling large teams across many projects, and you need a dedicated planning tool more than a billing workflow.
Questions to ask before choosing
Before comparing features, be clear about what your agency actually needs to answer every week.
1. Is our main problem planning people or billing clients? Resource planning apps answer “who is available next week?” Client billing apps answer “what do we invoice this month?” Most agencies need both, but one is usually more urgent.
2. How do we sell our work? If every project is pure Time & Materials, most tools will cope. If a single project mixes a fixed-price discovery phase, T&M development and a support retainer, you need budgets that handle more than one billing model at once.
3. Where is the invoice created today? If invoices already come from an accounting tool and you only need clean numbers to feed it, an export may be enough. If someone rebuilds every invoice by hand from timesheets, generating it inside Jira saves real hours each month.
4. How do we stop billing the same hours twice, or missing them entirely? Logged hours are not the same as invoiced hours. Ask whether the tool tracks which worklogs are already invoiced and which billable time is still waiting.
5. Who approves time before it is billed? Approval workflows usually matter to finance and delivery leads more than to developers. Check whether approvals happen per timesheet, per worklog, and with more than one approver.
6. Who needs to see the numbers? Project managers, finance and leadership need different views. Check permissions, and whether people can see project health without seeing everyone’s cost rates.
Worklog360 vs ActivityTimeline: side-by-side
Both apps track time and calculate project financials in Jira. The difference shows up in everything that happens after the hours are logged.
| Capability | Worklog360 | ActivityTimeline |
| Built for | Client work: time, budgets, invoicing | Resource and capacity planning |
| Time tracking in Jira (issue, timer, calendar, timesheets) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Timesheet approvals | ✅ Multiple approvers, timesheet and worklog level | ✅ |
| Clients as a separate entity | ✅ Linked to budgets, reports and invoices | Budgets are scoped by project, epic or JQL |
| Budgets | ✅ T&M, Fixed Price and Retainer, included | ✅ Manual or estimate-based (Advanced Edition) |
| Mixed billing models in one budget | ✅ Service-based budgeting | Fixed revenue is configured at budget level |
| Cost and billing rates | ✅ User, role, project and worklog level | ✅ Category, user and budget rates (Advanced Edition) |
| Profitability reporting | ✅ | ✅ (Advanced Edition) |
| Invoice generation | ✅ Branded invoices from worklogs and budgets (PDF, Excel) | Docs describe exporting an Excel report to attach to an invoice |
| Invoiced vs uninvoiced worklogs | ✅ Marked as invoiced, no double billing | Not covered in the docs we reviewed |
| Accounting integration | ✅ QuickBooks Online sync | Excel export; no accounting sync found in the docs we reviewed |
| Resource scheduling | ✅ Scheduler for capacity and planned work | ✅ Advanced planner and workload views |
The ActivityTimeline column reflects its public Marketplace listing and help center as of October 2026. Features change, so check with the vendor for the latest.
Worklog360: built around the client invoice
Worklog360 is a Jira Cloud app for time tracking, budgets and client invoicing, built for agencies, consultancies, software service companies and MSPs. Its starting point is the commercial agreement with the client, not the resource plan.
The whole app follows one chain: Client → Budget → Scheduler → Time tracking → Approvals → Invoice → Profitability. A logged hour doesn’t stop at a timesheet. It consumes a budget, adds cost and billable value, and ends up on an invoice.
Where it shines
- Clients at the centre. Keep one client list and link it to projects, budgets, reports and invoices, so every logged hour shows who it was delivered for.
- Service-based budgeting. Split one client budget into services, each with its own billing type and value. Discovery can be fixed price, development T&M and support a retainer, all in the same budget. Services link to Jira epics and work items, so worklogs land on the right service automatically as people log time.
- Budget tracking in real time. Every worklog updates planned vs logged hours, planned vs actual revenue, cost, profit and remaining budget, with a forecast based on the people scheduled on the budget, so overruns show up while the work is still in progress, not at month-end.
- Scheduler for capacity. Plan people against Jira issues or whole projects, see who is available or overbooked, and compare planned vs logged time in the time reports.
- Time entry that fits every role. Developers log from the Jira issue, consultants from the calendar, PMs adjust many entries at once in editable timesheets, and anyone can use a timer.
- Approvals built for billing. Timesheet and worklog approvals with multiple approvers, plus time on non-Jira activities such as holidays, sick leave and internal work.
- Real client invoices. Pick a client, a budget and a billing period, and Worklog360 calculates the invoice from approved billable work and your rates. Invoices carry your company logo. Hours and rates can be adjusted on the worklogs before the invoice is generated, and the finished invoice exports to PDF or Excel or syncs to QuickBooks Online.
- No double billing, no missed hours. Finalized invoices mark their worklogs as invoiced, and a spreadsheet-style time report lists every worklog with its logged time, billable time and invoiced status, grouped by project, user, sprint or epic.
Things to consider
- Jira Cloud only. Worklog360 is built for Jira Cloud.
- Focused on client delivery. The Scheduler covers capacity and availability for client projects. Teams that need deep portfolio planning across hundreds of people may pair it with a dedicated planning tool.
Best for: agencies, consultancies and IT service companies that bill clients for Jira work and want time, budgets and invoices in one place.
ActivityTimeline: a planning tool with a finance add-on
ActivityTimeline by Reliex is an established resource planning app for Jira. Its strength is visual capacity and workload planning across large teams. Its Advanced Edition adds a Finances module, which calculates cost, revenue and profitability from worklogs and rates.
For client billing specifically, this is what its documentation describes:
- Invoicing through an export. Its Finances FAQ suggests exporting the Detailed Financial report to Excel and attaching it to your invoice, which suggests invoices are typically prepared in another tool.
- Fixed price set at budget level. The FAQ describes tracking a fixed-price contract by switching a budget to fixed revenue tracking and adding the contract amount as a revenue transaction. Projects that mix fixed price with hourly work may need some extra setup.
- Finances in the Advanced Edition. Budgets and profitability are part of the Advanced Edition rather than Standard.
Best for: organizations where resource planning is the top priority, and invoicing already runs through a separate system.
Worked example: one client project in both apps
The difference is easiest to see on a real-looking project with mixed billing.
- Agency: Pixelforge Studio
- Client: Northline Retail
- Project: New customer portal, 4 months
- Total agreed value: €60,000
| Service | Billing model | Value |
| Discovery and requirements | Fixed price | €8,000 |
| UX/UI design | Fixed price | €12,000 |
| Development | Time & Materials (about 400 h at €80/h) | €32,000 |
| Support after launch | Retainer, €2,000/month for 4 months | €8,000 |
At the end of month two, finance asks the usual question: what do we invoice Northline this month? The design milestone was approved, the team logged 120 development hours, and the retainer has started.
In Worklog360
- One budget is linked to the Northline client, with four services, each carrying its own billing model and value.
- Development and design services are linked to their Jira epics, so worklogs land on the right service automatically as people log time.
- The PM reviews and approves the month’s billable worklogs.
- Finance picks the client, the budget and the period, and Worklog360 generates the invoice from the budget and the approved worklogs within it, including the 120 development hours at €80 (€9,600). The invoice carries Pixelforge’s logo, exports to PDF or syncs to QuickBooks Online, and the included worklogs are marked as invoiced.
In ActivityTimeline
Based on ActivityTimeline’s documentation, a project with mixed billing would likely be set up with fixed-price amounts entered as revenue transactions alongside the hourly work, possibly across more than one budget. For the invoice, its docs suggest exporting the financial report to Excel and using it to prepare the invoice in an accounting tool.
The numbers are visible in both apps. With Worklog360, the invoice is too, and it comes straight from the same client budget the team has been logging time against all month.
Pricing and editions
Worklog360 includes time tracking, client budgets, the Scheduler, approvals and invoicing in one license, with no editions or tiers to upgrade through. It’s free for teams of up to 10 users, and larger teams can evaluate it free for 30 days. See current pricing on the Atlassian Marketplace.
ActivityTimeline offers Standard and Advanced editions, and its budgets and profitability features are only in Advanced. When comparing, price the full workflow you need: a planning app plus a separate invoicing process can cost more in admin hours than any license difference.
Final recommendation
If your agency sells work to clients and delivers it in Jira, the question that matters most is simple: did every billable hour turn into revenue?
Worklog360 is built around that question. It starts with the client agreement: what was sold, how each part is billed, and what can be invoiced. The Scheduler, time tracking, approvals and budget tracking all feed one outcome, an accurate client invoice generated inside Jira. That makes it especially strong when projects mix fixed price, T&M and retainers, and invoices are still built by hand at month-end.
ActivityTimeline starts with people and is a solid choice for organizations whose main challenge is planning large teams, particularly where invoicing already runs through a separate system.
After years of running software delivery teams, the pattern we see most often is this: agencies rarely lose money because they couldn’t see who was busy. They lose it in the gap between logged hours and invoiced hours. Pick the tool that closes the gap that hurts you most, and try it on one real client project before you roll it out.
➡️ Try Worklog360 free on the Atlassian Marketplace or book a 20-minute walkthrough.
FAQ
What is the main difference between Worklog360 and ActivityTimeline?
Worklog360 is a Jira app for client work that connects time tracking, service-based budgets, approvals and client invoicing in one workflow. ActivityTimeline is a resource and capacity planning app with an optional Finances module in its Advanced Edition.
Can Worklog360 generate client invoices from Jira worklogs?
Yes. Worklog360 generates invoices from approved billable worklogs and budgets, exports them to PDF or Excel, syncs them to QuickBooks Online, and marks the included worklogs as invoiced.
Can one Worklog360 budget include fixed price, T&M and retainer work?
Yes. With service-based budgeting, each service in a client budget has its own billing model and value, and can be linked to Jira epics and work items.
Does Worklog360 include resource planning?
Yes. The Scheduler shows team capacity and planned work, highlights over-allocation, and lets you compare planned and logged hours in the time reports.
Can ActivityTimeline generate client invoices?
Its documentation doesn’t describe a built-in invoice generator. For invoicing, its Finances FAQ suggests exporting the Detailed Financial report to Excel and attaching it to an invoice.
Does Worklog360 work inside Jira?
Yes. Worklog360 runs inside Jira Cloud, so your team logs time on the same issues they already work on, and all financial data stays connected to Jira work.
Is Worklog360 free?
Worklog360 is free for teams of up to 10 users. Larger teams can evaluate it free for 30 days through the Atlassian Marketplace.