Work doesn’t always happen in straight lines nor is it predictable. Some months are quiet. Other months, everything breaks at the same time.

But service contracts in Jira usually don’t keep pace with that. They are fixed. You typically get a set amount of time or tickets per month. If you don’t use them, they vanish. If you need more, you hit a wall or create Amends to add extra quotas.

That doesn’t match reality. So, we added two new features to TicketBook to make service contracts align with real-life needs and scenarios.

Carry-Over: You can save when you don’t use

The “Use it or lose it” model is frustrating. If you pay for hours, you should probably get to keep them. We added a setting called Carry-over unused quotas.

When you turn this on, TicketBook looks at what you didn’t use in the current period and moves it to the next one. Here is a simple example: If you have 100 hours but only use 80, the remaining 20 moves to next month. The math is simple: next month, you have 120 hours. And it doesn’t stop there; the quota keeps carrying over and accumulating until the end of the contract.

This helps to avoid end-of-month panic to burn through remaining ticket counts or service hours.

Borrowing: You can use future time now

Sometimes a project gets messy, or a server crashes. You need to work right now, but you are out of hours for the contract period. We added a setting called allow ‘over-consuming’ periods to borrow.

This lets you keep working even if you use up your limit. The system just takes the extra hours from the next period once it’s enabled, automatically.

If you need 110 hours this month, but your limit is 100, you can use the 10 extra hours without worry. Next month, your limit drops to 90, it just balances out.

It keeps the work moving without needing a new contract or an awkward phone call about “overages.”

How to use them

These settings are unchecked by default. You can find them in your Contract Definition configurations.

When generating a report, you can view your data with or without Borrowing and Carry-Over enabled. This allows you to simulate different scenarios without changing the actual contract definition

Here is how your report looks like when borrowing and carry-over are unenabled:

Once enabled, it looks like this for the same period:

Work fluctuates. Your tracking tool should be able to handle that.

About TicketBook – Service Time and Contract Management for Jira

TicketBook – Service Time and Contract Management for Jira helps you manage service contracts directly inside Jira Service Management (JSM) portal. It is built for both vendors who sell support and companies that buy it.

You can create contracts based on months or years. You can set limits using ticket counts, hours, or SLA targets.

The main job of the app is to show you exactly how much value you have used. It generates reports so you can see if you are over or under your limit. It also lets you show this data to your customers on the support portal. This way, everyone knows exactly how many hours are left without sending emails back and forth.

To learn more about TicketBook, visit its Atlassian Marketplace page. You can also visit the official TicketBook documentation page or book a demo.