Tracking Project Costs in Jira with Cost Tracker

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Project planning is always about time, scope and finance. Jira is a handy tool for working with the first element: estimation in time and story points, Agile reports, Scrum and Kanban boards with flexible settings, etc. So, everything related to project planning and process tracking can be done in Jira using default functionality.

Jira as project management and cost tracking tool: SaaSJet experience

We, here at SaaSJet, build the products, meaning we have a lot of projects. Small and big. Good structured and a bit chaotic. However, there is always one question on the table - what is the cost of a particular project we run? 

With this issue in mind, we built a product that helps us and (knowing that our situation isn’t unique) will help other organizations.

The concept is quite simple. People do projects. So, they spend their time on tasks. All of them have rates. To make something happen, teams need computers, servers, software, etc.

We all understand that Excel sheets are not an option when you have a large team and many projects. As one joke says - Excel is the foundation of the entire world economy :).

We decided to develop a simple and functional app that would optimize the process of tracking costs in the company and provide reporting in a convenient form -  Cost Tracker for Jira Cloud.

How to estimate project costs with Cost Tracker?

Our formula for the project cost is:  People’s rates * allocated time + direct expense.

Now, let’s see what Cost Tracker is in play.  Once you install the product from the Marketplace, all Jira users will be synced to the app.

1. Set Hourly Rates

The first step is to set the hourly rate for each team member.

2. Add Project Expenses

Next, add all expenses related to the project. You can include One-time and Recurring expenses, and associate them with a Project, a User, or any combination of users.

If you have permission to manage expenses, you can add recurring expenses to the database. Recurring expenses come with additional settings:

• Number of months to repeat – e.g., entering 3 will repeat the expense quarterly.
• End date – when the recurring expense should stop.
• Cycle of occurrences – how frequently the expense recurs.

3. Prepare the Scope

Now, define the scope of your report. For example, if you want to evaluate last month’s work, go to Jira Filters and create a filter that captures all issues with a worklog from the previous month.

Example JQL:

("worklogDate" >= startOfMonth(-1)) AND ("worklogDate" <= endOfMonth(-1)) AND project = Development

This filter will be used for monthly reporting.

4. Generate the Cost Report

Finally, go to the Cost Report page and generate the report:

• Select the saved filter.
• Provide a Default Hourly Rate (used for users without set rates).
• Specify the period for worklogs and direct expenses.
• Set a Planned Budget.

The resulting report will include:

• Overview – provides a comprehensive view of expenses, labor costs, and planned budget using intuitive charts.

• Scope – lists issues with worklogs in the selected period; calculates cost per issue as worklog × user rate. Supports adding Custom Jira Fields.

• Team – shows all users who reported time in the selected scope, their worklog amounts, and associated costs. If a user has no rate, the Default rate is applied.

• Expenses – displays all expenses within the selected period; new expenses can be added directly to the report and synced with the main list. Draft reports update dynamically, completed reports are frozen.

• Totals – summarizes the report with total direct and labor expenses.

Notes:

• Every report is directly connected to its elements and will update automatically if changes occur. For example, users can add missed expenses later, or update worklogs.
• To finalize the report, a Project Manager can mark it as complete, which freezes all numbers for reporting to stakeholders.
• Financial data is sensitive, so ensure proper restrictions are applied in the additional settings.

This app was created to address challenges we faced, and we’re confident our experience is not unique — many companies encounter similar problems, and we’ve developed solutions to tackle them.

We also reference real use cases to illustrate how these solutions work in practice.

We hope this will be useful for everyone!