In this tutorial, you will create an account and link it to a management project. You will create a folio that tracks costs and revenue, associate the required skills and resources with the folio, and plan the costs and revenue. Finally, you will generate and view folio reports. You need Budgets by Tempo and Timesheets by Tempo to complete these tasks.

Prerequisites:

A Jira project management project is needed for this tutorial. The project should be for a service delivery with 1-2 consultants.
The project must have at least 2 project tasks with original and remaining estimates.
Make sure the Account field is available on the Issue page.
Make sure the Billable options are enabled on the Tempo Global Configuration page (Configuring Global Accounting options).
Make sure you know which issues are OPEX and which are CAPEX related. For example, Task - 1: Development = CAPEX, Task - 2: Training = OPEX.

Step 1: Creating an account

With your Jira project ready, the next step is to link the project to accounts. Create one account for billable time and name it so that you can easily recognize it as a CAPEX account. Assign Taylor as the Account Lead and select Development as the Category. Similarly, create an account for non-billable time, including OPEX in the account name. Again, Taylor is the Lead and the Category is Training.

To create an account...

To create an account, you need Tempo Account Administrator permissions:

From the Tempo menu, click more... under Accounts.
Click Create Account at the top-right.
In the Create Account dialog, enter or select the information for the account:
1. 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 Work dialog in Tempo Timesheets, depending on configuration.
2. 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 choose. The key can use letters (a-z, A-Z), digits (0-9), underscore ("_"), dash ("-") or a dot (".").
3. Lead: the account lead is responsible for the account. You can either select an existing Jira username or simply enter a name.
4. Customer: Optional. Select a customer to associate with the account from the drop-down menu. The customer does not need to be an outside customer, it may simply be a way to group together a common entity (Jira projects or cost centers) of your definition for the projects linked to the account.
5. Contact: Optional. Depending on the purpose of the account, for internal or external use, the contact may or may not be a Jira user.
6. Category: Optional. Select a category to associate with the account from the dropdown. The category is a way to group different cost centers and work activities, such as Development or Marketing.
When you are finished, click Create. The account is added to the list on the Accounts page and can be opened from there.

Click to enlarge

When you have created the accounts, you need to link them to your Jira project.

To link a project to an account...

You can link accounts to one or many Jira projects. To link an account to Jira projects, you need Tempo Account Administrator permissions.

From the Tempo menu, click more... under Accounts.
Click the account to which you want to link Jira projects.
The account's overview page is displayed. Click Configuration at the upper-left.
Click Links in the left-hand sidebar.
From the Project drop-down, select the project you want to link to the account.
Click +Link. The selected project is listed on the page. You can click Delete link to unlink it from the account.

To link the account to all Jira projects:

Accounts that are linked to all Jira projects are called global accounts.

On the account links page, click the gear icon , and then click Link account to all projects (global).

If there are no issues in your project, create at least one CAPEX = Development issue and one OPEX = Training issue. To help plan out the projected costs for the project, assign an original estimate in hours to each issue. Also, make sure that the issues are associated with the correct account.

If your project already has issues, you can edit them to ensure that they are associated to the appropriate account and have time estimates.

Step 2: Creating a folio

Now that you have set up your project and your accounts, you are ready to start using Budgets! When working with Budgets, the first step is to create a folio. A folio is aBudgets project that lets you define a financial plan, a scope, and a time frame for your Jira project. Folios can be associated with any number of Jira projects.

Create a new folio and use your Jira project to define the scope, and select to track Cost & Revenue. Give the folio a name (e.g. 'project_name folio'), select USD as the currency, and pick a start and end date for the folio.

To create a folio...

To create a new folio in Budgets, you need to have Tempo Budgets Super Administrator permissions:

From the Tempo menu, click more... in the FOLIOS section.
On the Manage Portfolios page, click the Create New Folio button or Create a folio link in the sidebar.
Select a folio scope. The Folio scope is a list of Jira issues, defined by a Jira saved filter. Select from:
1. Jira projects – All issues from the selected Jira projects will be part of the folio's scope. A private filter will be created under the folio's creator.
2. Issues – All selected issues will be part of the folio's scope. A private filter will be created under the folio's creator.
3. Jira Saved filter – All issues derived from the Jira saved filter will be part of the folio's scope. The filter is reused as is.
4. Custom JQL (Advanced) – All issues derived from the custom JQL will be part of the folio's scope. A private filter will be created under the folio's creator based on the entered JQL.
5. Customers – All issues associated with an account linked to at least one of the selected Tempo customers. A private filter will be created under the folio's creator.
6. Accounts – All issues associated with at least one of the selected Tempo accounts. A private filter will be created under the folio's creator.
Select what to track:
1. Simple Costs – Plan and track costs only.
2. Costs and Revenue – Plan and track costs, revenue, and profitability.
3. Earned Value – Plan and track costs using the Earned Value Management (EVM) technique.
Enter information about the new folio:
1. Name – Enter a name for the new folio. Note that the ampersand (&) character is not supported as part of a title for folios or portfolios. Instead, type the word 'and' within your title.
2. Main Currency – Select a default currency for your folio.
3. Start Date – Select the start date for the folio. The start date and the end date for the folio will determine which worklogs are included in the folio cost and revenues.
4. End Date – Select the start date for the folio. The start date and the end date for the folio will determine which worklogs are included in the folio cost and revenues.
5. Projects – Select one or more projects to include in the folio. The issues in the project(s) will determine which worklogs are included in the folio cost and revenues.
6. Portfolios – If you want to include this folio in a larger portfolio, select it here.
7. Project Manager – Select a project manager.
8. Risk Level – Select a risk level for this folio:
  1. High Risk
  2. Medium Risk
  3. Low Risk
9. Description - Enter a description of the folio (maximum 500 characters).
Click Create.

Any folio that you create will automatically grant you Folio Administrator permissions for that folio.

Step 3: Planning the salary expense for your folio

Having created your folio, you can start creating a cost plan for your project. In this step you will plan the salary expense for your folio using Plan from Estimates. Using this option, Tempo Budgets calculates the number of staff members required to complete your project. The plan is based on the estimated effort of issues within the folio's scope and time frame. Expenses are planned and tracked on the folio Costs tab. Name the human resource, such as Developer (this can be changed later), estimate the cost rate, and make sure to select the folio start date as the effective date.

To plan human resource costs based on estimates...

To plan human resource costs in Tempo Budgets for Server based upon estimates you need to be a Folio Owner or Folio Administrator:

From the Tempo menu, click the folio name. You can also click more... to open a list of all folios.
Click the Costs tab, and then click Planned at the top-left.
Click Plan from Estimates.
Under Select effort to plan for, select either the entire scope of the folio, or narrow it down using a filter or JQL function.
Under Plan Staff:
1. Name - select a name for the positions created.
2. Role - select a role for the positions created.
3. Cost Rate - select a planned Cost Rate for the positions. This rate is individually set, it doesn't necessarily conform to the global user rates.
4. Effective Date - select a date for the work to start, or choose the Folio's start date.
Click Plan. Tempo Budgets for Server will set human resources based on the folio's scope.

The generated plan shows you how many staff positions (in this instance, developers) are needed to complete the project/folio.

Step 4: Planning expenses for your folio

Along with the salary forecast, you need to plan for other expenses such as travel costs, software licenses, training, etc.

Plan some expenses that are related to your project and classify them by category and type.

The planned expenses are displayed on the Costs tab under Planned.

Step 5: Approving and baselining your folio

After you have planned the costs for your folio, you can set a baseline. A baseline is simply a point of comparison. Planned costs can be approved and baselined to help you track their evolution. You can create multiple baselines so you can compare various planning scenarios. You can access all baselines from the Planned view.

In this step you will approve your budget and set it as a baseline for future reference.

Step 6: Planning a consulting revenue

With your planned costs approved, you can plan the revenues you expect the folio will generate. In this step you will plan consulting revenue from four full-time consultants. Assign them the Member role, the planned effort should be 100%, with a price rate of $95.00/hr. Select From and To dates to match the folio start and end dates.

Step 7: Adding staff to your folio

When you are ready to proceed with your folio, you can add the people who are working on the project to your folio. Be sure to check that the people are available by going to the Resource Planning overview in Tempo Planner. Filter by role and find out who is available (4 full-time + 1 day). Now go back to your folio to add your staff. Use folio's start and end dates and set the availability to 100%. Because you are using global user rates, the Cost Rate is fixed.

At this time, there are no actual costs recorded in the folio since no hours have been logged.

Step 8: Synchronizing your folio with Price tables and Tempo Accounts

In this step you will make all consulting revenues in your folio use hourly rates from a globally defined price table. You will also synchronize your folio with Accounts so that all worked time on issues are associated with a Tempo account.

Step 9: Logging non-billable hours for the staff

Worked hours are hours that were spent working on the folio's scope by folio members. The worked hours will be included in costs and revenues. Navigate to Tempo Timesheets and log non-billable hours for your staff on project issues that are linked to your OPEX account. Make sure that the Billable field has 0h. Repeat for each member of your folio.

When you go back to your folio, you will see the logged hours in the Actual Costs.

The Actual Revenue, on the other hand, is still 0.

Step 10: Logging billable hours for the staff

Similarly, log billable hours for the staff and see how your folio changes. Log billable hours for your staff on your project issues that are linked to your CAPEX account. Go to Revenue, select the worklogs to add as consulting revenue, then select a role for each staff member. Also select the Billable Ratio as 100%. You will notice how the Total Revenue changes.

Step 11: Synchronizing your folio with billable hours

In this step you will synchronize your folio with Jira worklogs so that the consulting revenue hours will be driven by billed hours logged in Tempo Timesheets. To do so, select Synchronise with the Tempo billed hours in the Accounting tab of the folio's configuration page.

Then navigate back to your folio and open the Revenue tab. You will see that the total hours are reduced.

Step 12: Generating and viewing reports

The folio's Report tab offers several reports where you can visualize, analyze, extract, and export data in many ways. Go to the Report tab and play around with the following reports:

Forecast Report
Issue Costs Report
Expenses / Revenue Report
Steering Committee Report

Project Portfolio Management in Tempo Budgets