Using Jira Core for Finance projects
Let's take a look at a simple invoice workflow...
Use case | Invoice 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? |
|
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 customizations | While 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 case | Purchasing - 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? |
|
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 customizations | You 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.