Set up Tempo accounts

Accounts in Tempo help you organize your company's projects and initiatives in order to get useful time data, such as to:

• Keep track of billable hours and non-billable hours spent on work for a customer.

• Define the cost centers in your company with operating expenses (Opex).

• Keep track of Capex hours for applying for tax credits.

• Track the costs of time logged to Capex (Capitalized Type) and Opex (Operational Type) accounts in a Tempo project in Cost Tracker.

• Organize the time spent on different projects or initiatives, such as development, marketing, training, or support.

• Monitor the time spent on internal issues like sick days or vacation time.

The Tempo Account custom field must be added to your Jira project to use Tempo accounts.

Create an account

You can also import from CSV file. Download the template first from Accounts > Import/Export. Then use this page to Import from CSV and map the CSV fields to the account attributes.

1. Select Accounts in the Tempo sidebar.

2. Click + Create Account at the top-right.

3. Fill in the Create Account form:

   • Name - A descriptive name for the account. The combination of the account name and key is used to display the account in Jira issues or in the Log Time form in Tempo Timesheets, depending on the configuration.

   • Key - The account key needs to be unique for the account. A suggested key based on the account name is auto-generated, but you can enter any value you like. For example, you could use this as a way to match this Tempo account to the account in your accounting or financial software. The key can use letters (a-z, A-Z), digits (0-9), underscore ("_"), dash ("-") or a dot ("."). You cannot change the key after the account is created.

   • Lead - The account lead is responsible for the account. This is often an account or project manager. Select an existing Jira user.

   • Category - Optional. Select an account category to associate with the account from the dropdown. The account category is a way to group different cost centers and work activities, such as Development or Marketing. There are four types of categories you can use to classify an account category: Billable, Capitalized, Operational, and Internal.

     To create or edit categories, click the Settings icon in the side panel and select Account Categories.

   • Customer - Optional. Select a customer to associate with the account. Having a customer is useful when you're tracking billable (and non-billable) work for a client. However, a customer for an account can also be an internal group, such as a team or cost center. The Customer field can actually be used for any type of data you want to add to an account, such as geographical location or even year. You can add a customer later.

   • Contact - Optional. Enter the name of the person as a contact point for this account, such as the manager in your client's company (external) or a person in another department in your own company (internal).

     - Click the icon beside this field to enter the name of a Jira user on your Tempo instance.

     - Click the A icon beside this field to enter the name of an external contact (name only, no email is required).

   • Projects - Select the Jira projects that include issues to which you will be logging time for this account. You can link the account to more than one project.

4. When you are finished, click Create and the account is created.

Create a global account

You can make any account into a global account, which links it to all Jira projects on your Tempo instance. Be aware, however, that global accounts can profoundly affect Tempo's performance if there are many Jira projects to which they're linked. It's recommended to use this option only when necessary.

1. Create an account as described above.

2. Click the Account name in the list to access its Account Overview

3. Under Links to Projects, select the Make this account global checkbox.

Setting the Default Tempo Account for a Jira Project

When you link a Tempo account to a Jira project, that account becomes available to be selected for all issues of that project. To make it easier to select the correct account, you can set the default account to be used for all issues in a Jira project. This account is then automatically selected in the Account dropdown for all the issues in this project. Your users can still select another account from the Account dropdown.

1. Open the Jira project for which you want to set the default account.

2. Go to the Project Settings > Apps > Accounts in the sidebar.

3. To link an account to this Jira project, select it from the Account list at the top and click Link +. You can also link accounts to Jira projects from the Account overview.

4. Click the Set default button beside the account that you want to be used as the default account for this project. Only one account can be set as default at a time. The account is then marked in grey as Default Account.

5. Now all new issues that you create in this Jira project will have this account automatically selected in their Account dropdown.

If you set a default account for a project that has no Account dropdown in its issues, you will get a message that you need to add the Account custom field when you create a new issue in this project.

View work logged against accounts

To see all worklogs linked to an account, created a Logged Time report filtered by the Account, then group by User and Worklog. You can also view this data in the account's Timesheet.