Tempo Integration
- Barbora Golasowská
The following text is a complete documentation of the integration between Tempo and Business Central. It consists of three main parts: settings and a detailed description of how to download your worklogs, either manually or automatically.
Settings
To integrate with Tempo, it is necessary to set up the Tempo Integration Settings table, where you will have to enter the integration keys and URLs that will allow Jira and Tempo to connect to Business Central.
To ensure that the integration works properly, you must set up the project journal templates, the resource setup and the corresponding number series.
General Recommendations
To simplify the entire setup process, we recommend using our Tempo Integration Setup Wizard, which can be found in the Assisted Setup section accessible through the search bar. Once all the connection credentials are filled in, our wizard assistant will test if the connection is established correctly and if you have all the required permissions.
Complete documentation for the Tempo Integration assisted setup can be found under this link.
Since the integration requires only one Jira account and one user to connect to, we recommend that the person responsible for setting up the integration be a technical user or an administrator, ideally with access to all projects, issues and worklogs.
In addition to the wizard, you can also use the tooltips, which provide an example of what the system expects you to enter.
Before you start installing the integration, make sure that all users who will use the integration have the permissions to these tables:
Object Type | Object ID | Object Name |
Table Data | 156 | Resource |
Table Data | 169 | Job Ledger Entry |
Table Data | 203 | Res. Ledger Entry |
Table Data | 205 | Resource Unit of Measure |
Table Data | 210 | Job Journal Line |
Table Data | 237 | Job Journal Batch |
Table Data | 240 | Resource Register |
Table Data | 241 | Job Register |
Table Data | 71231910 | Jira Project Key ONP |
Table Data | 71231911 | Tempo Settings ONP |
Table Data | 71231912 | Tempo Worklog Archive ONP |
Table Data | 71231913 | Worklog Period ONP |
Tempo Integration Settings
The integration settings can be found by typing Tempo Integration Settings in the search bar. The settings are divided into several sections.
API Section
This section is already pre-populated with the credentials that you entered into the wizard when setting up the integration. You can skip it and move on to the next section.
Job Queue Section
The following settings can be customized according to the customer's needs:
Download Updated From
When downloading your worklogs automatically using job queue, this field is automatically populated with the date and time of the last successful job queue start and this value does not need to be further adjusted.
The value in this field is not the date on which the worklog was created, but the date it was last modified. The purpose of this functionality is to optimize the download process and avoid downloading worklogs that are already in the system and download only those that have been updated since the last download.
Even if you need to manually download worklogs for a certain period of time, for example because of additional changes in Tempo, we recommend not to change the last download date filled in automatically. When you run the manual worklog download feature, it will download all worklogs you have updated in Tempo since the last download date for the period you have filled in on the feature page.
TIP! We also recommend doing this manual catching up of all updated worklogs at the end of each month, before posting the worklogs from the project journal to the system. This way you can be absolutely sure that your worklogs will be up to date, even if there have been any changes to them after they have been downloaded to Business Central.
The only time it is appropriate to leave the field blank is when creating a new project or adding a new Jira project key to an existing project in Business Central. Once you run the manual download function, this will download all the worklogs for that project for the period you have filled in on the function page.
For more information about automatic and manual downloading of worklogs, see the corresponding documentation section.
Next Period Starts
Since worklogs are typically approved and closed at the end of the month, this field allows you to set a specific day of the month until which the previous month's period will remain open, so you can adjust the period length according to your company needs.
If you download worklogs after this date, only the current month's worklogs will be downloaded. This applies to the automated download workflow, which means that if you make any changes to previous month’s worklogs in Tempo after the start date of the next period, you will need to download the modified worklogs manually.
Using the example in the screenshot above, the February worklogs can be downloaded until March 5th, but if the system downloads the worklogs after that date, only the March records will be downloaded to your Business Central.
Automatically Load For All Project Tasks
If enabled, all worklogs for all tasks in the project are automatically downloaded when the job queue is started.
Project Journal Creation Section
Project Journal Template
You can define exactly one template for the project journal. See the project journal template settings section for more information.
Project Journal Editable
When this button is enabled, it indicates that all users will be able to edit project journal lines without restriction.
Project Journal Editable for Project Manager
When enabled, this button specifies that only users who are set as the project managers on the project card can edit project journal lines.
Another way how to restrict undesired changes in the whole integration setup is to allow editing of this table only to selected users via appropriate permissions.
Automatically Create Resources
This toggle specifies if the resources that do not exist in Business Central should be automatically created when worklogs are downloaded.
Resource Default Unit of Measure
The default unit of measure for creating a resource. This value should always be set to Hour as our integration only works with hourly rates.
Resource Default Gen. Product Posting Group
The default general product posting group for creating a resource. This value can be set to any posting group according to your system needs, e.g. Resource.
Merge worklogs when posting
To make the entries that are created by posting worklogs in project journals more clear, it is possible to reduce the number of project or resource entries or project planning lines by merging them.
You can use this field to specify a default rule for projects that have no rule defined on their project card. You can choose from the following options:
Do not merge - When entering worklogs into the system, each line of the project journal will correspond to to exactly one project entry after it's posted.
Merge by resources - When this rule is applied, the posted project journal lines are merged according to each resource loaded into the project journal.
Merge to one G/L account - When this rule is applied, the posted project journal lines are merged into a selected financial account.
Deafult Values for Manual Download
This setting specifies the default settings for the fields on the Load Tempo Worklogs page, which can be used for manual downloading of worklogs. For more information on manual downloading, see this section of the documentation.
Project Journal Posting Checks Section
The last section of settings allows you to customize which parameters of your worklogs should be checked when posting them in the project journal.
Check Worklog Status
Checks if the worklog status is set to approved when posting project journal lines.
Check Unit Cost
Checks if the unit cost is other than 0 when posting project journal lines.
Check Unit Price
Checks if the unit price is other than 0 when posting project journal lines.
Check Different Doc. No.
Checks if the document number of all lines is the same when posting project journal lines. The document number series is defined in the format YYYYMM.
Check Doc. No. Posted
Checks for duplicate postings by document and project number in project entries when posting project journal lines.
Project Journal Template Settings
For correct functionality, it is necessary to set up a project journal template and enter it in the corresponding field in the Tempo Integration Settings table.
It is not necessary to manually create the individual project journal batches. The system will create them automatically the first time you download the worklogs or the first time you manually open the project journal from the project card. The name of the project batch is derived from the name of the project itself.
Resources Setup
If your resources in Business Central will be created manually, you need to assign a number series for the Resource Numbers field in the Resources Setup table.
If the resources in Business Central will be created only through the integration with Tempo, it is not necessary to set up a manual number series for your resources and assign this number series in the Resources Setup table.
Project Card Settings
On the card of each project for which you want to download worklogs, you should always fill in the following fields in the project header section.
Jira Project Keys
Corresponds to the Project Key field in Jira, it is possible to fill in any number of project keys.
After clicking in the grey box, a table will appear where you can add new Jira Project Keys either via the +New action or by typing in a new empty line.
And additionally, in the tasks of each project it is necessary to fill in the following fields.
Tempo Account
Corresponds to the Tempo Account key, which can be found either in the given project details in Jira or in Tempo under the Accounts tab.
Project Journal Line Type
The Project Journal Line Type determines whether the data created at posting will be only budget-related (cost side), billing-related (sales side) or if both sides of the process will be created at once.
Depending on how you intend to further work with the data, you can choose from the following line types:
Budget - if you only want to track costs spent on individual projects, for example budgeted costs versus actual costs. At the same time, it will not be possible to create invoices from this type of line.
Billable - if you want to use the lines for tracking the profitability of your projects and also for invoicing your customers.
Budget and billable - if you want to track both the cost and profitability of projects and also create invoices for customers.
Empty - Alternatively, you can leave this field empty and when the project journal is posted, no project planning lines will be created, only project and resource ledger entries.
Totalling Group
We added this field to the Project Tasks to allow users to summarize cost and sales entries by different Tempo Accounts. In case they need to make additional analysis, lines with the same totalling group will be summarized in reports.
Worklogs Merging
Optionally, on each project's card, you can specify whether worklogs should be merged according to pre-defined rules when they are posted.
You can choose from the following merging rules:
Do not merge - When entering worklogs into the system, each line of the project journal will correspond to to exactly one project entry after it's posted.
Merge by resources - When this rule is applied, the posted project journal lines are merged according to each resource loaded into the project journal.
Merge to one G/L account - When this rule is applied, the posted project journal lines are merged into a selected financial account.
Resource Card Settings
Resources Created Manually
If the resources are created manually, you need to fill in the fields:
No. - Unique resource ID in Business Central. In this case, it should be filled in with the resource name as mentioned in the corresponding section of the documentation.
Jira Resource Name - Corresponds to the resource name in Jira.
Jira Account ID - Unique resource ID in Jira.
Base Unit of Measure - This value should always be set to Hour as our integration only works with hourly rates.
Gen. Product Posting Group - This value can be set to any posting group according to your system needs, e.g. Resource.
Resources Created Automatically
If the resources are created automatically when downloading the worklogs from Tempo, you don’t need to fill in any of the fields above, the system will fill them in for you.
Price of the Resource
The fields on the resource card related to the resource price should always be filled in.
Unit Cost - Represents the cost of the resource.
Unit Price - Represents the price for which you sell the resource.
If you are used to bill your customers by resource, we also recommend to fill in the General Prod. Posting Group and the VAT Prod. Posting Group.
If a resource has different unit prices according to the projects it is allocated to, it is possible to set this unit price for individual projects using standard Business Central functionality available on project cards.
On the given project card, locate the Prices & Discounts tab and click on the Resource page.
It is then possible to define the sales price of the individual resources for the specific project and, if needed, for the individual tasks of the project.
Job Queue Entry Settings
To download worklogs automatically, our integration uses the Job Queue Entry feature. It is recommended that you set the download to run every day during the night hours. The job queue will always download all new and updated worklogs. This ensures that the data in Business Central is always up to date and also ensures data consistency between the ERP and Tempo.
When setting up the job queue entry you need to fill in the fields below. The first two fields are the most important to run the correct codeunit.
Object Type to Run should be set to Codeunit.
Object ID to Run should be set to 71231913.
Other general fields such as Earliest Start Date/Time or Job Timeout and values in the Recurrence section depend on your personal preferences.
To ensure that the queue runs automatically according to the parameters you set, you must launch it. Since Business Central version 22, only the end user (customer) can start job queues external users (consultants) do not have sufficient permissions to do so.
User Permissions Settings
Once you assign purchased licenses to selected users in your Microsoft 365 Admin Center (via Billing and Licenses), there is no need to assign or check any specific permissions in Business Central. The full functionality of Tempo Integration will make itself available to users with assigned licenses.
Automated Download
Automatic download of worklogs is ensured by the corresponding job queue entry. See the relevant part of the documentation for more details.
The download of worklogs also depends on the settings of the Tempo Integration Settings table, specifically the Job Queue section, where it is possible to limit e.g. the period for which worklogs should be downloaded and also whether all worklogs should be downloaded for all tasks of the project. For more information see this section of the documentation.
Viewing Downloaded Worklogs
All downloaded worklogs are displayed to the user in the corresponding Project Journal. The Project Journal can be opened directly from the Project Card in Tasks using the Project drop-down menu and Open Project Journal action.
Project Journal
The project journal contains detailed information about each downloaded worklog. One line of the project journal corresponds to one downloaded worklog.
Line Type - determines whether the expense is billable or not. It can be set automatically on the Project Card in Project Tasks according to the user's needs, more details can be found in Project Card Settings section.
Posting Date - corresponds to the date the worklog was created in Tempo and, at the same time, to the date it will be posted and entered in Business Central.
Worklog Status - determines the current status of the worklog in Tempo.
Document No. - specifies the number series under which the worklogs will be entered into the project entries in the system. The number series is defined in the format YYYYMM.
Type - specifies the type of account under which the worklog will be entered in the project entries, e.g. resource.
No. - corresponds to the number of the specified account type, e.g. resource number.
Description - corresponds to the name of the number, e.g. the name of the resource.
Description 2 - corresponds to the worklog description in Tempo.
Unit of Measure Code
Quantity
Unit Cost - corresponds to the unit cost of the resource or item set on the relevant card.
Unit Cost (LCY) - corresponds to the unit cost of the resource or item converted into local currency.
Total Cost - this value is calculated from the field Unit Cost multiplied by Quantity.
Total Cost (LCY) - this value is calculated from the field Unit Cost (LCY) multiplied by Quantity.
Unit Price - corresponds to the unit price of the resource or item set on the relevant card.
Line Amount - this value is calculated from the field Unit Price multiplied by Quantity.
Line Discount Amount - specifies the amount of discount applied to the entry on the given line.
Line Discount % - corresponds to the ratio between the logged billable/non-billable time of the resource on the given task in Tempo.
Other optional fields are dimensions which are inherited from the project card.
Entering lines from the project journal into the system
Ideally, worklogs should be entered into the system on a monthly basis for a full previous month after the approval process has been completed in Tempo.
The user will then need to enter the missing prices for the resource in question directly on the resource card. Once the resource card has been updated, it is possible to add these prices to the already created lines of the project journal using the Update Amounts action in the Home tab.
Journal entries are entered into the system through the Post action. We always recommend running the Preview Posting function before you actually post.
Rules for merging worklogs during posting
If you have defined one of the rules for merging worklogs during posting when setting up the integration, either in the Tempo Integration Settings or directly on the individual project cards, you will find a detailed description of how each of the three rules works below.
For more information on general Tempo Integration settings or Project Card settings, see the corresponding sections of the documentation.
Merge by Resources
When this rule is applied, the posted project journal lines are merged according to each resource loaded into the project journal. The user will be prompted to enter the posting date.
In the example below, we can see that there are currently worklogs in the project journal for four different resources with a posting date interval for August 2024.
After selecting the Preview Posting or Post action, the user is prompted to select a single posting date for all worklogs.
In the screenshot below, you can see the merged worklogs in the project ledger entries after the project journal is posted.
Merge to one G/L Account
When this rule is applied, the posted project journal lines are merged into a selected G/L account. The user will be prompted to enter a posting date and a financial account.
There are currently nineteen worklogs in the project journal for various resources with a posting date interval for August 2024.
After selecting the Preview Posting or Post action, the user is prompted to select a single posting date and G/L account for all worklogs.
In the screenshot below, you can see the merged worklogs in the project ledger entries after the project journal is posted.
Do not merge
When applying this rule, the lines of the project journal are not merged after posting, and one line of the project journal will correspond to exactly one project entry.
There are currently thirteen worklogs in the project journal.
In the screenshot below, you can see the corresponding project ledger entries created after the project journal is posted.
Tempo Worklog Archive
If you use our merging functionality, the project ledger entries created after the worklogs are posted will only display in merged form.
The original, unmerged entries are recorded in the Tempo Worklog Archive, which can be accessed via the search magnifying glass. This archive can be used for auditing purposes or to track changes in records, for example, in case of additional downloading of worklogs.
Line ID
The best way to access the merged lines is by using the click-through value in the Line ID column, available directly in the project ledger entries. Once you click on it, all corresponding lines in the Tempo worklog archive are displayed.
The value in the Merged Line ID column is also clickable, and clicking it takes you back to the corresponding line in the project ledger entries.
There are also other values in the archive to help you identify the origin of each merged line such as the Jira Account ID, Tempo Worklog ID, or Tempo Updated At columns.
Posting Checks in Project Journal
The following checks can take place before the worklogs in the project journal are entered into the system using the Post action. The user is always alerted about the information they should focus on, and can then decide if they want to post the journal lines despite the alert. Therefore, all warnings below are non-blocking.
Worklogs status check
Unit cost and unit price check
Different document numbers check
Posted document number check
Viewing data for posted worklogs
After posting/entering the project journal lines into the system, the costs associated with the resource will be displayed on the given project card, in the Tasks section, in the Actual (Total Cost) column.
Clicking the value of the Actual (Total Cost) field displays a list of all project ledger entries (posted worklogs for the project) that make up the value in the Actual (Total Cost) field.
Another way to view the project ledger entries for a specific project task is to go to the Line tab in the Tasks section, select the History drop down menu and click Project Ledger Entries, with the line for that task selected in the tasks lines.
If you want to see all entries for the entire project and all its tasks, you can go to the Project tab on the given project card and select the Ledger Entries action.
Project Ledger Entries Cancellation
If some worklogs (project journal lines) have been entered into the system incorrectly, it is possible to cancel them by reverse entry (cancellation) through the journal of the respective project. This can be done by using the Reverse function in the project ledger entries.
When using the Reverse function, the system displays a message to the user that they have created the corresponding lines in the project journal.
To post the reversed lines, the corresponding project journal can be opened directly from the project ledger entries using the action Open Project Journal.
The cancelled line is then displayed in the project journal with a negative quantity and the user records it into the system using the Post action.
After posting, the cancelled lines are then reflected again in the ledger entries of the given project, and after summing them with the original entry, the resulting value is zero (assuming that the user does not change the values of the cancelled lines in the project journal).
Manual Download
It is possible that while using this integration, you may need to download some of the worklogs in one-time session outside of the preconfigured job queue entry that provides automatic downloads. This might occur especially after additional changes to the worklogs in Tempo, after they have already been automatically downloaded.
Bulk Manual Download
During the download process you will be informed about the details for each project by the window below. Once the download is complete, this window will show a summary of the results of the entire process.
The download of worklogs also depends on the settings of the Tempo Integration Settings table, specifically the Job Queue section, where it is possible to limit e.g. the period for which worklogs should be downloaded and also whether all worklogs should be downloaded for all tasks of the project. For more information see the Tempo Integration Settings section of this documentation.
Manual download
Worklogs can be manually downloaded directly on the project card from the Tasks section. Go to the Line tab, select the Project drop-down menu and click Load Tempo Worklogs.
A window with optional parameters for downloading worklogs will then appear.
The From, To and Updated From fields are pre-populated with the dates corresponding to the last date of the automated download. The user can delete the values and set the filter on the From and To date according to their own needs. More details on the Updated From field updated from can be found here.
The other fields represent the worklog status type for which the user wants to download the worklogs.
If the user will be downloading worklogs for multiple project tasks at the same time, it is recommended to have the Save After Each Project Task field active.
The last filter allows the user to restrict the download of worklogs for a specific project and a specific project task.
To download worklogs according to the parameters defined by the user, select the Ok option at the bottom of the window.
Downloaded worklogs will appear in the journal of the respective project similarly to the automated download and again you will be informed about the results of the download.
The Load Tempo Worklogs action is also available directly in the Project Journal under the Home tab.