How to see project cost from Tempo worklogs in Jira

By Kayabyte · Updated 1 November 2026

Short answer: Tempo Timesheets keeps the real worklog author in Tempo’s own data, and Jira’s copy of each worklog shows Tempo’s app account, so cost per person has to come from Tempo. Your options are Tempo’s own Financial Manager (formerly Cost Tracker), a spreadsheet fed by the Tempo REST API, or Burnrate: Project Cost Tracking & Budgets for Jira with its Tempo connection (beta), which prices each worklog by its real author.

Your team logs time with Tempo Timesheets. Now someone wants to know what a project has cost. You open Jira, look at the worklogs, and every hour seems to come from the same account. This guide explains why, and shows your options: Tempo’s own cost product, a spreadsheet fed by Tempo’s REST API, and where each one stops.

Why Jira’s worklogs don’t show who did the work

Tempo Timesheets keeps the real worklog, with its real author, in Tempo’s own data. Jira only gets a copy. That copy is written by Tempo’s app account, not by the person who logged the time.

In Jira’s work item view and in Jira’s REST API, the author is the Tempo app account, and the comment is a generic one.
Searching Jira by worklog author won’t find individual people.
Tempo’s own reports, the Tempo panel on the work item, and the Tempo API show the real author.

So any tool that only reads Jira’s worklogs can add up hours, but it can’t tell whose hours they are. That’s a problem for cost, because cost depends on who worked and at what rate. Tempo explains this behaviour in its knowledge base (“Why do we see Tempo as the worklog author?”), and Atlassian Community threads show people running into it.

Option 1: Tempo’s own cost product

Tempo sells this itself. It’s called Financial Manager (it used to be called Cost Tracker). Checked on tempo.io on 2026-10-30:

A project is defined by a Jira filter (JQL), a Structure, or Jira spaces and epics. Time logged on the work items in that scope becomes labour cost.
Cost rates can be global, per role on a project, or flexible per team member on a project. Billing rates are separate.
You can add a budget in money or time, with milestones, and fixed expenses such as equipment.
Forecasts of cost and revenue are done through plans in Tempo’s Capacity Planner, which is a separate product.
It needs the Tempo Project Manager or Tempo Project Administrator global permission, and a Jira admin to install it.
Tempo’s pricing page says Tempo Timesheets is currently needed to use it. Its help page says Jira’s native time tracking works too.

If you already use Tempo for planning and want everything in one vendor, check this first. See Tempo’s pages above for current plans and prices. Things to compare with your needs: it’s built around Tempo projects, so you set up each project in it, and the forecast sits in another Tempo product.

Option 2: a spreadsheet fed by the Tempo API

If you only need a cost number, you can pull the real worklogs from Tempo and price them yourself.

In Tempo, go to Settings → Data Access and create an API token. Anyone with the token can read worklogs, so keep it out of shared sheets.
Call the worklogs endpoint. Tempo’s API reference uses a Bearer token and GET /worklogs with from, to, limit and offset. Version 4 lives at https://api.tempo.io/4/ and allows up to 5,000 records per call, per Tempo’s version comparison.
```
TOKEN="your-tempo-api-token"
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \
  "https://api.tempo.io/4/worklogs?from=2026-01-01&to=2026-03-31&limit=1000" \
  | jq -r '.results[] | [.startDate, .author.accountId, .issue.id, .timeSpentSeconds, .billableSeconds] | @csv'
```
The response is paged. Follow the next link in its metadata until it ends.
The author is only an account ID (version 4 no longer returns the display name). Look the names up with Jira’s user API, or keep your own table of account ID and name.
Keep a rates table with a start date per row, price each worklog with the rate that applied on its date, and group by project, epic or version. Jira’s issue ID in the worklog has to be matched to work items to get the project or epic.

Where the spreadsheet stops

It goes stale. Worklogs change every day. Someone has to re-run the export.
Issue IDs are not projects. Tempo returns issue IDs. Grouping by epic or fix version means another lookup against Jira.
Forecasting is manual. Pace, run-out date and the cost of remaining work all need their own formulas.
Rates are sensitive. The sheet shows what each person costs, so only a few people can see it.
The token is a risk to manage. It reads every worklog, so it shouldn’t live in a sheet others can edit.

Burnrate, with its Tempo connection

Burnrate: Project Cost Tracking & Budgets for Jira is the app I make for cost from worklogs. By default it reads Jira’s worklogs, which for Tempo users means one “unattributed” author. The Tempo connection (beta) fixes that.

A Jira admin pastes a Tempo API token in Burnrate’s settings. The token needs access to view all worklogs, and a Tempo Timesheets subscription is needed.
Burnrate then reads worklogs, authors and billable hours from Tempo, and ignores Jira’s copies. History is read again from Tempo.
Each worklog is priced with the rate for its real author on its own date. Rates have a start date, so a new rate never changes the cost of past work.
Budgets in money or hours for projects, epics, fix versions or any JQL query, with pace, run-out date and an estimate at completion.
With the Tempo connection on, Tempo owns the worklogs, so Burnrate’s own timesheets, approvals and invoices are off.
Without the connection, Burnrate runs on Atlassian and makes no calls outside it. With it on, Burnrate reads from Tempo’s API.

It’s on the Atlassian Marketplace. If you don’t use Tempo, the guide on project cost from Jira worklogs covers the plain case.

FAQ

Why does every Jira worklog show Tempo as the author? Jira only gets a copy of each Tempo worklog, written by Tempo’s app account. Tempo’s own reports, the Tempo panel and the Tempo API show the real author.

What is Tempo Financial Manager? Tempo’s own cost product, formerly called Cost Tracker. Projects are defined by a Jira filter, a Structure, or spaces and epics; forecasts are done through Tempo’s Capacity Planner, a separate product.

Does the Tempo API return the worklog author’s name? Version 4 returns only an account ID. Look the names up with Jira’s user API or keep your own table.

What does Burnrate’s Tempo connection need? A Jira admin pastes a Tempo API token with access to view all worklogs, and a Tempo Timesheets subscription is needed. With the connection on, Burnrate reads from Tempo’s API.

Tempo, Jira and Atlassian are trademarks of their owners. Kayabyte is an independent developer and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tempo or Atlassian.