Tempo Timesheets is a well-known time-tracking software for Jira, offering solutions to help teams track progress, log time, and generate insights for better Jira Resource Management. But what if your current tool isn’t checking all the boxes?
That is where ActivityTimeline comes in. It is a smart option that helps managers track time across several projects and help their teams stay productive.
In this article, we’ll compare Tempo Timesheets with ActivityTimeline, highlight what’s missing in Tempo, and explain how easy it is to make the switch.
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What is Tempo Timesheets?
Tempo Timesheets for Jira is an app designed to help teams track time, generate timesheets, and manage billing. As a platinum partner in the Atlassian Marketplace, Tempo integrates well with Jira for features like:
- Tracking time spent on tasks and projects
- Logging hours for invoicing and payroll
- Creating custom reports for compliance and analysis
- Managing costs through CAPEX and OPEX tracking
Tempo is a solid tool for basic logging, but its workflows can feel quite rigid. A major downside is that it does not include capacity planning features for the same price. This often leads teams to look for a more flexible solution that handles both tracking and planning in one place.
What to Choose Tempo Timesheets or ActivityTimeline?
Here’s a quick rundown of features every Jira time tracking app should offer and how the two compare:
It’s important to note that in this comparison, we are looking at Tempo Timesheets on its own. This specific product only handles time tracking and reports total hours. Other products from the Tempo ecosystem, namely Capacity Planner, extend its capabilities with more features for planning and managing resources seamlessly but they come at an additional price.
Tempo costs a flat $10 per month for small Cloud teams. Larger groups pay between $5.21 and $0.25 per user each month. If you use Jira Data Center, an annual subscription starts at $2,280. Don't forget about Capacity Planner, which will cost you about $3.63 per user extra.
ActivityTimeline is much more affordable. It is free for up to 10 users on Cloud. For larger teams, the rate stays between $2.50 and $0.10 per user. On Data Center, an annual plan starts at just $1,900.
Common Use Cases for Tempo Timesheets
Tempo works well for several common situations. This is why many businesses choose it from the Atlassian Marketplace.
Forecasting Project Time and Improving Estimation Accuracy
One of the hardest parts of project management is setting realistic deadlines. Tempo Timesheets helps track working hours spent on previous tasks, which provides valuable historical data to guide future estimations.
You can use Jira time tracking and calendar integrations to see how long similar work took in the past. This allows you to predict how much time new work will take.
When you track time accurately, you avoid underestimating effort. Underestimating often leads to missed deadlines and overworked employees. This focus keeps your team productive without stretching them too thin. Both Tempo and ActivityTimeline cover these areas well. ActivityTimeline even helps teams pre-plan their workload to spot potential delays early.
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Gaining Insights into Team Productivity
Tracking project time isn’t just about logging hours, it’s about uncovering what those hours mean for your business. Tempo generates reports that offer insights into how your team allocates time across projects and tasks.
With Tempo reports, you can:
- Evaluate which activities take up the most time and if they match your business priorities.
- Find bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or overtime trends to help improve your workflows.
- Use data for everything from checking performance planning resource allocation for future work.
ActivityTimeline offers even more Jira Reports options to help you see the bigger picture. You can review detailed timesheets or look at resource utilization reports. The variety of reports is always growing because the team adds new features based on what clients need.
Tracking Billable Time for Client Invoicing
If you bill clients for your services, Tempo Timesheets makes invoicing clear and simple. It helps you keep your work transparent for your customers.
With Tempo, you can:
- Log every minute of work on specific projects or tasks using Jira time tracking. This ensures all billable time is accounted for.
- Spot non-billable hours to find inefficiencies and improve your profit.
- Use reports to break down hours by client, project, or task for easy invoicing.
There is a common issue with syncing worklogs from Tempo back to Jira. When you log time in Tempo, the data about who recorded the work can be lost, making migration or integration with other tools difficult. It often means you feel stuck using other expensive products from the Tempo ecosystem just to keep your data connected.
But ActivityTimeline allows a smooth migration from Tempo Timesheets. We can extract your worklogs and then ensure two-way synchronization with Jira for further analysis and management.
Supporting R&D Tax Refund Claims
If your company does research and development, you need to track your resources carefully. This is vital for staying compliant and claiming tax benefits.
Tempo Timesheets simplifies this process by grouping logged hours into spending categories. Also, with precise tracking of time spent on various tasks, businesses can categorize labor costs into CAPEX and OPEX for better financial planning.
Using Tempo Accounts, organizations can track time across cost centers. The app ensures that the logged time spent on R&D projects is documented, meeting audit and compliance standards. With its Jira reporting capabilities, Tempo makes it easy to compile the necessary data to file for R&D tax refunds, saving your business money.
Why Migrate from Tempo Timesheets?
If you’re managing multiple projects, handling capacity planning, or juggling team productivity challenges, you might find Tempo’s offerings limited. It handles basic time entry and Jira reporting well. But businesses often outgrow its features as they expand. Many clients choose to leave because of limited integrations or the need for custom tools. Some also find that other solutions are too complex.
Sirius Technologies evaluated several tools before choosing ActivityTimeline for its cost and Jira integration. They moved from having low visibility to pre-planning their entire workload a week in advance. This shift allowed them to identify idle time and late tasks quickly so they could fix inefficiencies.
Here’s where ActivityTimeline steps in, bridging the gaps left by Tempo and providing advanced features that adapt to modern project management demands.
Advanced Resource Planning and Scheduling
While Tempo focuses on tracking time, ActivityTimeline is a powerful tool that brings a proactive approach with its visual scheduling boards. These boards help teams to:
- Plan ahead by assigning tasks visually across team members.
- See everyone’s availability, overtime, and workload distribution in real time.
- Optimize capacity planning for teams and resources, ensuring no one is overbooked or underutilized.
For managers handling many projects, this is much more effective than the static method used in Tempo.
Team Calendar Integrations
Tempo lacks a unified team view for easy scheduling. ActivityTimeline offers a fully interactive team calendar where you can:
- Track who’s working on what and when.
- Schedule tasks, time off, or repetitive assignments directly on the calendar.
- Adjust timelines quickly, which is great for agile workflows.
- Use visual cues like grey background colors that show when a calendar event has been successfully logged.
- Manually re-sync your calendars or choose specific types to import.
This features are perfect for ensuring smooth collaboration across teams and handling unexpected changes without disrupting project progress. You can connect Google, Outlook, and Apple iCal calendars seamlessly with only a few clicks.
Visual Capacity Planning and Workload Balancing
Tempo doesn’t provide tools for balancing workload visually, which can leave managers guessing. ActivityTimeline solves this with:
- Color-coded workload indicators, showing when a team member is overbooked or has capacity left.
- A drag-and-drop interface to redistribute tasks effortlessly.
- Insights into team productivity for smarter planning.
For organizations that prioritize accurate tracking and optimal resource usage, this feature is a must-have.
Sprint Planning and Retrospectives
Tempo is a good tool for logging time. However, it lacks dedicated support for agile methods like sprints. ActivityTimeline offers:
- Sprint scheduling tools that connect directly with your Jira boards.
- Retrospective insights to see what went well and where your time went.
- A clear view of how sprint goals align with team capacity, making it easier to hit deadlines.
Enhanced Reporting and Insights
Whether you’re managing repetitive tasks or tackling a new challenge, having a tool that integrates seamlessly with Jira reporting makes it easy to track progress and create accurate schedules.
While Tempo provides standard reports, ActivityTimeline takes Jira reporting to another level by offering:
- Customizable reports that combine time tracking data with capacity planning.
- Visual dashboards for easier analysis of time spent, task progress, and team productivity.
- Integration with other apps and tools to align reports with your business goals.
There is even more. If you use agile methods, the Project Progress Report now tracks Story Points too.
You can also choose to see time in Days instead of Hours and use an "Exclude" filter to hide data you do not need. With these added layers of insight, optimize workflows and track progress more effectively than they could with Tempo alone.
Migrating from Tempo to ActivityTimeline
Switching tools can sound complex, but ActivityTimeline makes it straightforward. Many teams find the switch simple because the tool connects directly with Jira. This keeps all your data in one place and removes the need for extra manual tasks. Costs are also a big part of the decision. You can save a lot of money by picking a tool that has everything you require in one package.
This video guide walks you through the process in just a few minutes.
Summary: Why Migration Is Worth It
While Tempo Timesheets helps you track progress and log time, it falls short in areas like capacity planning and team schedule visualization. For a more flexible solution, ActivityTimeline is the ideal choice. With its user-friendly interface, advanced features, and easy migration process, it’s time to rethink your time-tracking strategy.
- Improved Features: ActivityTimeline offers advanced planning, scheduling, and workload management capabilities that Tempo Timesheets doesn’t offer. We listen to customer requests and add what you ask us about in upcoming releases.
- Better Reviews: ActivityTimeline has consistently received praise for its intuitive interface and superior customer support. We work with teams big and small to deliver excellent service.
- Cost-effective Solution: ActivityTimeline includes more features than just Tempo Timesheets for the same price. If you also need capacity planning, custom reports, or a timeline view, you'll need to pay extra for them.
- Seamless Integration: Don’t you want to lose your data for several years? Think about integration capabilities beforehand. With ActivityTimeline, you can see the same worklog data in both Jira and AT.
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