How to calculate budget burn rate and run-out date in Jira

By Kayabyte · Updated 4 November 2026

Short answer: Jira has no money burn rate, because it has worklogs but no hourly rates or budgets. Price each worklog with the rate that applied on its date and add them up to get the spend. Burn rate is that spend divided by the days so far, or better, the spend of the last 28 days divided by 28. The run-out date is today plus the remaining budget divided by the burn rate. You can do this by hand with the burn rate calculator, in a spreadsheet, or with an app such as Burnrate: Project Cost Tracking & Budgets for Jira. Disclosure: Burnrate is the app I make.

Jira’s burndown chart answers a different question. It tracks remaining scope in a sprint or an epic, in story points, hours or issue count, and says nothing about how fast a budget is going.

The formulas

Spend: the sum of hours x hourly rate for every worklog in the budget, using the rate on the worklog’s date.
Burn rate per day: spend / calendar days since the budget started. For a pace that follows recent work: spend in the last 28 days / 28.
Run-out date: today + (budget - spend) / burn rate per day, rounded up to whole days.
Estimate at completion: spend + remaining estimate in hours x average cost per hour so far.

“Burn rate” has a second meaning in earned value management: actual cost divided by earned value, where anything above 1 means you pay more than the work earned. That needs a planned value for the work. This guide uses the spend-per-time meaning, which only needs worklogs and rates.

A worked example

A budget of 60,000 started on 1 September. Today is 30 October, day 60. Time logged so far is 360 hours, priced at 27,000, and 16,800 of that was in the last 28 days.

Measure	Sum	Result
Budget used	27,000 / 60,000	45%
Burn rate, whole period	27,000 / 60	450 a day
Run-out date at that rate	33,000 / 450 = 73.3, so 74 days	12 January
Burn rate, last 28 days	16,800 / 28	600 a day
Run-out date at that rate	33,000 / 600	55 days, 24 December
Estimate at completion, 500 hours left at 75 an hour	27,000 + 37,500	64,500

The whole-period average hides that the team sped up, and it puts the run-out date 19 days too late. Use the recent pace for the warning. Keep the estimate at completion next to it, because the run-out date says when the money ends at the current pace, while the estimate says whether the remaining work fits.

Getting the numbers out of Jira

Find the work items. Use JQL for the project, epic or version, for example project = ABC. For an epic, include its child work items and their sub-tasks. The epic guide covers what to include and how to avoid double counting.
Get the individual worklogs. A work item export gives totals, while cost needs author and date. Use /rest/api/3/issue/{key}/worklog, or /rest/api/3/worklog/updated and /rest/api/3/worklog/list for everything changed since a date.
Filter on the worklog’s own date. JQL such as worklogDate >= -28d finds work items with recent time, but those items also carry their older worklogs. Filter the worklogs on started before you add up the last 28 days.
Price them. Keep one row per person or role with a rate and a start date, and use the rate that applied on the worklog’s date, so a rate change doesn’t alter past costs.
Run the formulas, or paste the totals into the calculator, which shows each sum.

What catches people out

Late worklogs. Time logged on Friday for Monday changes earlier weeks, so a burn rate from last week’s sheet is already out of date.
Short windows. One quiet or very busy week can move the run-out date by weeks. Treat it as a warning, not a promise.
Calendar or working days. Pick one and stay with it. Dividing by calendar days gives a lower daily rate than dividing by working days, but the run-out date is on the calendar either way.
Monthly budgets. A budget that resets each month needs the pace and the remaining amount measured within that month.
Hours budgets. The same formulas work with hours instead of money, with no rates needed. They won’t show when costlier people take over the work.
Costs other than time. Worklogs only cover time. Licences, contractors paid by invoice and other expenses have to be added separately.

Burnrate: Project Cost Tracking & Budgets for Jira

Burnrate is the app I make for this. It prices the worklogs your team already logs with dated cost and billing rates, and tracks budgets for projects, epics, fix versions or a JQL query, in money or hours, one-off, monthly or quarterly.

Pace is the average spend per day over the last 28 days within the period.
Projected is what the period will cost at that pace, and Runs out is the day the budget is used up.
Estimate at completion on one-off budgets adds the remaining estimates of open work items, priced at the budget’s average cost per hour so far.

It has no timesheet, doesn’t track expenses and is new, with no reviews yet. If you need those, or portfolio budgets, the comparison of Jira cost and budget apps covers the alternatives.

It’s on the Atlassian Marketplace.

FAQ

Does Jira have a budget burn rate report? No. Jira has no hourly rates or budgets, so it can’t show money spent. Its burndown chart tracks remaining scope, not cost.

How do I calculate burn rate from Jira worklogs? Multiply each worklog’s hours by the rate on its date, add them up, and divide by the days in the period. The last 28 days give a better pace than the whole project.

How do I work out when a project budget runs out? Divide the remaining budget by the daily burn rate, round up, and add that many days to today.

What’s the difference between a burndown chart and burn rate? A burndown chart shows work remaining against time. Burn rate shows money or hours spent per day or week against a budget.

Can I track burn rate in hours instead of money? Yes. Use logged hours in place of spend and an hours budget. You don’t need rates, but the result won’t show changes in cost.

Which number should I report, the run-out date or the estimate at completion? Both. The run-out date shows when the money ends at the current pace, and the estimate at completion shows whether the remaining work fits the budget.

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