Overview
A Financial Manager project shows how the total cost of a project is tracking against its budget. Labor costs come from time logged to Jira work items in the project scope, and you can add fixed expenses, revenue, and budgets. The project type you choose at creation determines how labor cost is calculated.
Project types
|
Project type |
How costs are calculated |
Typical use |
|---|---|---|
|
Monetary-based |
Labor cost = logged hours × hourly cost rates set for team members and roles |
Cost tracking against a monetary budget. Supports revenue tracking, and Fixed Price Project (which removes billing rates and labor revenue tracking). |
|
Time-based |
Costs are calculated from labor hours |
Projects that are managed and reported in hours rather than money. |
The type is set when the project is created. A Tempo administrator can set a default project type under default project settings.
Project scope options
The scope defines which Jira work items feed the project. You can define it by a single Jira filter (JQL), a Structure, or Jira spaces and epics. Auto-sync scope (daily or weekly) keeps filter and Structure scopes current. If you choose a Jira space, the scope updates automatically when new work items are created in that space, so the auto-sync option isn't shown.
Common use cases
1. Track actual project cost against budget
The core use case. Add a single budget for the project timeframe, or budget milestones that spread the amount over time (for example, quarterly). Add fixed expenses such as equipment or office rent, and set cost rates per team role.
2. Forecast costs and revenue with planned time
Forecasting uses planned time, not only logged time. Tempo Capacity Planner is required to enable projection metrics in FM. Plans in Timesheets and Capacity Planner are integrated into FM projects, and current and future plans assigned to team members are included when calculating labor, cost, and revenue. Use this to see projected cost and revenue against budget and to compare actual and projected KPIs.
3. Forecast a project before any time is logged
Create the FM project from the Jira scope and assign Capacity Planner allocations to the team. Once the plans are in place, the project shows projected labor cost and revenue even though no worklogs exist yet. This suits projects planned for a future year. Projected values depend on the planned time being assigned to team members, so check that the allocations are in place if members or costs don't appear.
4. Revenue and profitability tracking
For Monetary-based projects, enable revenue tracking to compare cost with revenue and see profitability. Revenue is based on billing rates set per team member. Use Fixed Price Project when the customer pays a fixed amount instead of being billed by the hour.
5. CAPEX and OPEX tracking
Track capital and operating expenses in an FM project by linking Tempo accounts to the work. Create one account category of type Capitalized and one of type Operational, create Tempo accounts in those categories, and link the accounts to the relevant Jira spaces and work items or worklogs. FM then calculates CAPEX and OPEX costs from logged hours and the FM cost rates, and shows them side by side in a panel that compares the two. Use this when finance needs to split project spend into capitalized and expensed categories.
6. Project time approval
Enable project time approval and select approvers to review hours logged to the project before they count toward cost. Use this when hours must be signed off.
7. Finding and grouping projects
Tags and project attributes help filter and find projects, and projects can be grouped into project portfolios for reporting across programs or departments.
Known limitations
Keep these in mind when you plan a project:
-
A project uses one currency. All costs and expenses are shown in the currency selected for that project.
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Plans created on Jira spaces using Planner are not included in forecasts. Forecasts need Capacity Planner allocations.
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Forecasting requires Capacity Planner. Without it, projection metrics are not enabled.
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When a project uses a Jira space as its scope, auto-sync scope isn't shown, because the scope updates as new work items are created in the space.
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Fixed Price Project removes billing rates and labor revenue tracking, so use it only when revenue doesn't depend on billable hours.
Choosing the right setup
Use Monetary-based if you need to see money, rates, and margins. Use Time-based if the team reports in hours. Add revenue tracking only when you need profitability, and add time approval only when hours must be signed off. Add Capacity Planner when you need forecasts, and set up Capitalized and Operational account categories when you need CAPEX and OPEX splits. Set defaults with a Tempo administrator so new projects start with the right type, currency, and options.