💡Use Case: How to create a cost forecast for a project in Jira

Project managers often struggle to estimate budgets for their projects in Jira accurately. Although Jira is great at monitoring tasks and progress, it does not have cost forecasting features. Therefore, many managers must use separate spreadsheets, perform calculations manually, and spend a considerable amount of time updating data.

The Main Purpose of the Budget Forecast Feature

Give project managers the ability to estimate future costs, monitor spending throughout the project lifecycle or sprint, and stay within the planned budget.

Pain Points of Creating Forecasts in Jira

❌ No native cost forecasting in Jira.

❌ Budgeting requires external spreadsheets.

❌ Difficult to estimate and track costs in real-time.

❌ Challenging to provide clear budget visibility to stakeholders.

Solution

Time & Cost Tracker for Jira app enables the creation of accurate budget forecasts directly within Jira. It helps project managers plan costs based on time estimates, team member rates, and story points easily and fast.

Using the Forecasts feature in Time & Cost Tracker for Jira app, project managers can:

✅ Create a forecast right in Jira.

✅ Automatically calculate the projected costs.

✅ Generate real-time reports related to the project budget and present them to stakeholders.

✅ Update forecasts easily when needed.

Creating a Forecast (based on time estimates and team member rates)

🗂️ Use Case: You're managing a marketing department in a company and need to determine the total amount of money required for the next period for teamwork.

To create a budget forecast, you need to do the following:

Go to the Forecasts section of the app and click Create forecast button.
Name the forecast, choose a scope, set the default forecasted rate, and select the estimated field (Original Estimate or Remaining Estimate).
Click Create button.

You will get your forecast. It will be calculated by using such a formula:

🧮 Estimated Time × Hourly Rate = Forecast Cost

Additionally, you can adjust team members’ hourly rates, for example: Emily Johnson – $10/hr, James Smith – $18/hr.

It is possible to edit the forecast in case the scope or team changes.

Creating a Forecast (based on Story points)

🗂️ Use Case: You're managing a new software release within your dev department and need to estimate the project budget based on Story points.

To create a budget forecast, you need to do the following:

Go to the Forecasts section of the app and click Create forecast button.
Give a name for your forecast, choose a scope, set the default forecasted rate, choose an estimate field (Story point estimate can be chosen for Team-managed projects, Story Points for Company-managed projects), and define one story point value in hours. For example:

Click Create button.

You will get such a budget forecast:

You can easily edit the Story point estimate and Forecast Rate fields if needed.

The forecast will be calculated by using the following formula:

🧮 Value of 1 Story Point in time * Number of Story Points * Hourly rate = Forecast Cost

Example:

If 1 Story Point = 3 hours, a task with 8 Story Points assigned to a developer with a $50/hr rate would be calculated as:

3h × 8 SP × $50 = $1,200

With Time & Cost Tracker for Jira app, you can predict your future budget costs easily, even when your team is using Story Points.

If you need help or have questions, please contact SaaSJet Support or email us at support@saasjet.atlassian.net.

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