Managing resources and tracking time efficiently in Jira can be challenging. Many teams rely on add-ons like Tempo Planner and Tempo Timesheets to improve scheduling and reporting. However, while Tempo Planner is widely used, it comes with certain limitations that lead many teams to seek alternatives like ActivityTimeline. This article compares both tools to help you make an informed decision.
What is Jira Tempo Planner?
Tempo Planner is a Jira add-on designed for resource planning, helping teams assign tasks and manage availability. It integrates with Tempo Timesheets for tracking actual vs. planned work and requires additional add-ons for full functionality.
ActivityTimeline vs. Tempo Planner – Comparison
To get full functionality, you need Tempo Timesheets for time tracking, which adds complexity and cost. This makes it harder to track time and compare planned vs. actual time spent in one place.
It’s important to note that in this comparison, we mean Capacity Planner only – a product for planning and managing resources seamlessly. Other products from Tempo ecosystem, namely Tempo Timesheets, extend its capabilities with more features dedicated specifically to time tracking but they come at additional price.
Common Use Cases for Tempo Planner
Tempo Planner is a basic capacity planning tool for Jira teams that need a simple way to allocate work and manage team capacity. It integrates with Tempo Timesheets for time tracking and offers some scheduling and resource planning features. However, its rigid structure and reliance on multiple Tempo apps can limit flexibility.
Here’s what teams typically use Tempo Planner for:
- Assigning tasks to individuals based on availability. Allocate Jira issues to team members while considering their workload. However, it lacks smart automation, meaning task distribution requires manual adjustments.
- Viewing planned vs. actual time spent. By integrating with Tempo Timesheets, teams can track planned work vs. actual time spent, but note that this requires purchasing an additional add-on!
- Managing basic capacity planning across multiple projects. Teams can get an overview of their resources, but customization options for capacity constraints and workload balancing are limited.
- Generating reports to track progress and workload distribution. While you can report on planned vs. actual time, deeper capacity management insights require additional tools.
- Configuring holidays & workloads. Avoid scheduling conflicts and burnout by defining holidays and work hours.
- Optimizing project portfolio management. Helps sort resource requests by role, availability, etc.
However, while Tempo Planner serves these needs, it lacks advanced skill-based resource planning, which can make it difficult for managers to assign work effectively. Additionally, the interface is not always intuitive, requiring a dedicated team member to assist others in navigating features. Teams often outgrow Tempo Planner when they require more flexibility, deeper insights, or integrated tracking without relying on multiple apps.
Common Use Cases for ActivityTimeline
Unlike Tempo, ActivityTimeline has advanced features that go beyond planning under the umbrella. Also, teams looking to streamline their capacity planning and resource management in Jira often choose ActivityTimeline for its flexibility and ease of use. Here’s where it shines:
Skill-Based Task Assignment
Tempo Planner focuses on simple capacity management, but ActivityTimeline takes it further by letting you assign work based on individual team members' skill sets. This means you’re not just filling schedules—you’re making sure the right people are working on the right tasks, leading to better project planning and more efficient team capacity utilization.
Also, you can generate a Skill Availability Report for your planning needs based on users skills.
Real-Time Team Capacity Visualization
ActivityTimeline provides a dynamic, interactive dashboard where you can see exactly where your resources are allocated, who’s available, and whether your capacity planner needs adjustments. Instead of static tables or rigid workflows, you get a clear, visual representation of your team’s workload—making it easier for project managers to make informed decisions and prevent bottlenecks.
Integrated Time Tracking
Unlike Tempo Planner, which requires you to purchase Tempo Timesheets separately for time tracking, ActivityTimeline has built-in time tracking. Team members can log their hours directly in the tool, and managers can compare planned vs. actual time spent without needing an extra add-on. This saves time, reduces costs, and ensures that project management stays seamless.
Advanced Leave & Event Management
Handling sick days, vacations, and business trips is far more advanced in ActivityTimeline than in Tempo Planner. With a dedicated leave planner, you can:
- Track absences in real-time
- Automatically adjust team capacity based on leave schedules
- Avoid scheduling conflicts
- Ensure project deadlines aren’t impacted by unexpected absences
Using different holiday schemes you can navigate remote and cross-border teams efficiently. This level of detail helps teams avoid capacity planning issues and ensures projects stay on track.
To sum up, if you’re looking for a capacity planner that makes project management easier, eliminates the need for multiple add-ons, and helps your team save time while making informed decisions, ActivityTimeline is the better choice.
Why Migrate from Tempo Planner
Many teams start with Tempo Planner for basic capacity planning in Jira, but as they scale, its limitations become more apparent.
Limited Visualization & Insights
Tempo Planner provides a basic calendar-style view but lacks interactive visual tools to fully gain visibility into team workloads, dependencies, and overall resource planning. It’s difficult for team leads and project managers to make informed decisions about capacity constraints and workload distribution.
Also, Tempo's planning process follows a structured workflow, which can be too restrictive when handling dynamic workloads across projects. Assigning and reassigning tasks isn’t always smooth.
ActivityTimeline offers an intuitive, real-time workload visualization that helps project managers instantly see available resources, balance workloads, and optimize capacity planning. Its timeline-based UI is much more user-friendly for both team leads and individual team members.
The app provides flexible project planning by allowing managers to quickly assign work based on team capacity and availability. With drag-and-drop scheduling, you can easily adapt plans as things change.
Manual Workload Balancing
Dealing with last-minute changes or capacity constraints is a headache for some of the Tempo Planner customers. In other cases, users lack the ability to pre-set planned time to tasks.
ActivityTimeline automates capacity management by providing recommendations when team capacity is exceeded. It helps managers proactively balance workloads and avoid burnout. Each task is assigned an estimated time to finish, planned start date, and planned end date. Based on this data, you can plan your team members capacity both on individual and team levels, and adjust workload of each member accordingly.
Reporting & Insights
While Tempo provides some reporting, it lacks deep analytics on capacity constraints, utilization trends, and workforce management.
ActivityTimeline delivers powerful capacity planner reports with deep insights into projects, resources, and overall capacity management. These insight-generous reports help managers save time and make more informed decisions:
Limited Event & Leave Management
Handling vacations, sick leaves, and business trips in Tempo Planner is basic, making it difficult to manage team availability. The app allows displaying Google & Office 365 calendar events, but overall this module is limited in scope.
ActivityTimeline provides an advanced leave management and custom events system where team leads can schedule time off, track full-time equivalents, and adjust team capacity accordingly. You can manage pre-set events that have predefined rules and fields or manage event types to add your custom event.
Complex User Experience
After speaking with clients and success managers, we can draw conclusion that Tempo Planner is designed more for admins than for everyday team members, making navigation tricky without dedicated internal support. Most users that have problems with it either have to work on planning extensively, like managing long-term plans for team of 10-20 people, or small teams that lack quick support with their arising problems.
ActivityTimeline is built for both team leads and individual team members, ensuring a streamlined and intuitive experience that doesn’t require extra training. For user convenience, we created an easy-to-navigate Help Center or a short video course so that everyone can get a solution of their problem just by using search. ActivityTimeline provides premium support packages for those who need custom solutions and guidance.
Higher Costs
Since Tempo Planner, Tempo Timesheets, and other Tempo apps are separate purchases, costs can quickly add up - especially for teams managing multiple projects.
Tempo Planner has flexible pricing based on number of users and billing period. On average, it will cost you $3.63 per user if you have more than 10 team members, while adding Tempo Timesheets layer will amount for $4.53 per user extra, making it $8.16/user/month for both timesheets & planner.
ActivityTimeline includes built-in time tracking, eliminating the need for additional apps. You can track time, log hours directly in the timeline, and compare planned vs actual work without juggling multiple apps for $2.50 per user average.
Summary
Tempo Planner is a useful tool for basic resource allocation but comes with notable limitations, including a rigid structure, reliance on multiple add-ons, limited customization, and high costs. Many teams migrate to ActivityTimeline for its all-in-one approach, advanced features, intuitive interface, and fairer pricing structure. If you're looking for a more scalable and cost-effective solution for Jira resource planning, ActivityTimeline is a compelling alternative.
