Using JIRA Core for Finance projects

Finance teams can use JIRA Core to manage their processes and work, and making a few tweaks to a standard project template will make sure it suits the needs of you and your team. You could use a simple workflow when you need to generate invoices, or you could use a more complex process workflow for end of year financial reporting. Make JIRA Core your one stop shop for all your financial process needs.

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Let's take a look at a simple invoice workflow...

Use caseInvoice tracking - make sure you know when to generate your invoices, and when to chase them.
What Business project
should I start with? 

Project Management - This gives you a workflow of To do, In progress and Done, and accompanying issue types of Task and Sub-task.

How can I do this?
  1. Create a task for each invoice that needs to be generated.
  2. Once you've generated the invoice and sent it, move the task to In progress, and add any details that need to be recorded to the comments of the task.
  3. You can set a due date for when the invoice should be paid, or a date for when you want to chase it.
  4. Once the invoice has been paid in full, you can move the task to Done!
How would this look?
Can I make this easier?If you need to make sure you record specific information for each invoice, such as the invoice number, add a field to the issue type Task called 'Invoice number'. This gives you a field you can search by when filled in, so it's easy to find the issue related to the invoice number you have. You can also add any attachments or emails to the issue to record any correspondence. You can add these along with any required comments. If you have one person who controls your invoicing, you can set them as the project lead to ensure they always get alerted when an issue is created.
Other customizationsWhile you can add a field to the issue type to make sure you have a specific field to record your invoice number in, you can go one step further and make that field required when you want to move the task from To do to In progress. That means without a valid invoice number being issued, you can't move the task to In progress. You could do something similar to record when the payment has been made, you may decide you need to have a copy of the credit to your company account to close the task off as Done.

What about something a little bit more complex? Do you have a simple purchasing flow like Order item > Item received? Then you'll be happy with a simple workflow like Task management where a task is either To do or Done. But what if your process is more complex, like Item requested > Business case created > Business sent for review > Approval received > Purchase order created? Using JIRA Core's Process Management project will give you an initial workflow to get started, and when your process matures, you can mature your workflow to make sure it always does what you need.

Use casePurchasing - Creating and submitting a business case for approval
What Business project
should I start with? 

Process Management - This gives you a workflow of Open > In Progress > Under Review > Approved > Done, and accompanying issue types of Task and Sub-task.

How can I do this?
  1. Create a task for each new business case for approval.
  2. Populate the task with all the relevant details, attaching any documents, spreadsheets or additional information that you think will support the business case. 
  3. Moving the task to Under Review and assign it to your approver (this could be your manager, or maybe a member of the purchasing department).
  4. Once approved, the final stage could be to either raise a purchase request, or possibly transfer the data to another system to get the purchase completed. Either way, the issue is Done and completed!
How would this look?
Can I make this easier?Yes! You can use a lot of JIRA Core's functionality, especially comments and mentioning other people (collaboration is alive and well!), to make sure you have all the information you need to complete the business case. Assigning the task to the relevant people at the right time as it moves through the workflow makes sure it'll always appear on their to do lists, and if notifications are set up, they'll even receive an email to let them know it's ready for them.
Other customizationsYou may decide to change the workflow. You may need to add in a second approver. You may also want to consider assigning the task automatically to the correct person as it progresses through the workflow. You may consider adding different issue types for each type of business case that you accept, and assigning each issue type a specific, custom workflow (with the correct assignees per status of course!). JIRA Core allows you to achieve this.

 

Think of anything else you may need to make sure you have everything recorded for your financials? Check out the Administering a project section of the docs for some ideas on other customizable areas of JIRA Core.

Last modified on Aug 4, 2017

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