Project budget in Jira. How, When, and Where?

When running different projects, it's essential, for obvious reasons, to keep track of how much money has been spent across the whole project portfolio. This will help to identify its purpose, when, and where the investment has been made. This way, you'll ensure the projects are completed within the allocated budget, and if you're using Jira to work on your projects, we'll show you a solution that helps keep track of your project budgets in Jira.

A project budget is a plan that details how much will be spent, for what purposes, and by when. It is an essential document for project planning and management, as it helps ensure that the project is completed within the allocated budget.

A project budget must include all costs associated with the project, including labor costs, materials, equipment, facilities, services, and other expenses. Costs can be categorized as direct or indirect. Direct costs can be directly attributed to the project, such as labor and materials costs. Indirect costs, such as administrative and overhead costs, cannot be directly attributed to the project.

How to start tracking budgets and costs in Jira?

In order to start tracking a project budget, it's necessary to choose the right tool. In this case, we'll use Budgety. Budgety it's a simple and intuitive app that helps to manage project expenses without a hustle, and we're going to show you how, when, and where to work with it:

1. In the first place, you need to install the app from the Atlassian Marketplace. As soon as it's installed, Budgety will be available in the Jira apps menu:

Once installed, Budgety will appear in the Jira apps menu.

2. The first screen you'll see will be shown with many zeros, and the chart will be empty (as you haven’t introduced any information about project budgets yet). Don’t worry, this screen will be populated with information soon enough. If we need to see information about our project’s budgets, we just need to select the "Add budget and costs” option:

Click on the "Add budget and costs" button to start tracking your project information.

3. Now, select the project you need to start tracking budget-wise. In the project searcher, look for the project you want to add budgets and costs or scroll down to find it. This project list will show all available projects in your Jira instance.

Select the project you need to assign the budget and cost.

4. Once selected the project to work with, now's possible to see the entire project page divided into three sections:

1. Budget: In this screen, we’ll see the last budget we entered, the “Incurred cost” for the project, and the “Remaining budget” in the project. The “Incurred cost” will increase as you enter new costs in your project, and the “Remaining budget” will decrease as you enter those costs in the project. If, at any point, the project’s budget changes, you will be able to edit it just by clicking on the “Budget” you last entered. 
   
   
                                                                   Tracking Budgets with Budgety for Jira.
   
   
2. Cost: This section is the one that offers more information on it. As we know, the best way to manage your project’s budget, control the project's costs, and make data-driven decisions is by having as much information as possible. This is why Budgety requests as much information as possible such as:
   
   
   1. Concept: This is the name of the cost. We suggest providing a clear and concise name to it for better tracking in the future.
      
      
   2. CAPEX/OPEX: CAPEX stands for capital expenditure. It is the money that a company spends on long-term assets that will be used to generate revenue in the future. CAPEX assets typically have a useful life of more than one year. It includes buildings, equipment, machinery, vehicles, and such. OPEX stands for operational expenditure. It is the money that a company spends on its day-to-day operations. OPEX expenses are typically incurred on a monthly or quarterly basis. It includes salaries and wages, rent, utilities, and such.
      
      
   3. Type: In this post’s introduction, we mentioned the importance of categorizing your costs into “Direct” or “Indirect”. This is why Budgety allows this categorization.
      
      
   4. Based on logged work: This selection strictly represents whether the entered cost will be directly related to the time spent working on that project or not, as a “Yes” or “No” selection type. This is important. If select “Yes”, the project time tracking must be available for every team member, as every minute working on the project will count towards this cost.
      
      
   5. Work logged by / Assignee: Directly related to “Based on logged work“, this “user selection” field will help identify which user’s logged time will be taken into account for this specific cost, if selected “Yes” in the prior selection. If selected “No”, this field will identify the cost assignee.
      
      
   6. From date / Until date: These fields will allow to correctly visualize when the cost was added and when it will need to be considered for this project. If the “Based on logged work” field shows “No”, the cost will only require the date when the cost was entered or made.
      
      
   7. Cost per hour: This field is directly related to the work logged by team members, as it will multiply the hours logged in the project by the cost per hour. The opportunity to track this information will level up your project’s budget management.
      
      
   8. Unit and Cost per unit: If selected “No” in “Based on logged work”, these two fields will become available to select and track how many of a given product we're using and how much that product costs.
   
   
                                                                     Tracking costs with Budgety for Jira.
   

    

3. Cost details:  Completing the fields and selecting “Add cost” will make Budgety run the precise calculations and automatically add the information provided in the last section and the results of those calculations as costs. This also works as the Budget “History” section, as you will always be able to return to the project’s page to check or report new costs.
   
   
                                              Check your cost history to review your project's information. 

4. Once the costs are entered for a specific project, by selecting “Return to all project budgets,” you'll understand why tracking budgets and costs with Budgety will ease your project management. In the “Totals” section, all projects will be added, allowing a simple view of the company’s big budgeting picture. In the “Details” section, you’ll get an overview of each project which will allow you to locate the complete budget, total costs, and the Direct and Indirect costs categorization:
   
                        Budgety allows full visualization of your project budgets and costs in a simple manner.

By tracking your budgets and costs with Budgety, you will have simple views for real-time insights on not only how your projects' budgets are holding up but also on the total budgeting for your Company. This will allow you to make informed decisions based on accurate and up-to-date financial information, monitor and control budget costs, and allowing to perform timely corrective actions to ensure better financial control of your projects.