Track completed work and scope changes with burnup reports in Timesheets and Custom Charts. Visualize progress based on logged time across Jira.
Burndown reports
A burndown report (or burndown chart) is a visual tool that tracks remaining work over time, helping teams measure progress toward sprint or project goals.
A burndown report (or burndown chart) is a visual tool that tracks remaining work over time, helping teams measure progress toward sprint or project goals. The vertical axis shows how much work is left – in hours, tasks, or story points – and the horizontal axis represents time, usually a sprint or release period.
In agile and Jira environments, the chart makes three things visible at a glance: total work planned at the start of a sprint, how quickly that work is being completed, and whether the team is on track to hit its sprint or release goals.
Tempo's burndown chart builds on that foundation by linking actual logged time to real progress, giving teams a more accurate picture of how work unfolds.
Track sprint health and team efficiency
A Jira burndown chart powered by Tempo is more than a progress graph – it's an operational dashboard for sprint health and team efficiency. You can see at a glance whether your team is ahead of or behind schedule.
When progress lags behind the ideal line, managers can catch blockers and inefficiencies early. Trends in time logged versus time remaining help forecast delivery. And the chart itself creates a shared, visual understanding of project status for teams and stakeholders.
Connect time tracking to burndown insights
Tempo's burndown capabilities are powered by Tempo Timesheets, giving you deeper insight than standard agile tools. With Timesheets and Tempo Planner, teams can visualize actual logged time against planned hours, capacity and allocation trends across users, teams, and projects, and historical progress patterns that improve estimation accuracy.
Unlike generic burndown charts that lean only on story points, Tempo pairs time tracking data with agile reporting to produce a more actionable view of the sprint.
Key benefits of Tempo burndown reports
Accurate time-based insights
Tempo's chart connects timesheet data directly to project progress, so you can see how real logged hours line up with planned work. That goes beyond story points to reveal true team effort and capacity usage.
Advanced filtering and customization
Customize the chart by project, team, account, or user. Flexible filters make it easy to analyze progress across multiple teams, epics, or accounts – all within Jira.
Seamless Jira integration
The reporting lives inside Jira, so teams can track issues, log time, and visualize sprint progress without switching tools. It's a natural extension of your agile workflow and Atlassian ecosystem.
Multi-team and cross-project visibility
With integrations like Structure and Custom Charts for Jira, Tempo enables burndown views that span multiple teams, projects, or epics – turning portfolio-level complexity into clarity.
Deeper context through time tracking
Because Tempo pulls time tracking data directly from Jira, its burndown view is useful for agile, service management, and billable teams alike.
How do you build a burndown report in Jira with Tempo?
Use Tempo Timesheets to turn daily time logging into actionable burndown insight. The workflow:
1. Estimate total hours or workload at the start of the sprint – for example, 120 hours. 2. Have team members log time daily in Timesheets. 3. Let the burndown report update automatically, showing remaining time against ideal progress. 4. Watch for hours that aren't dropping as expected – a signal of scope creep or blockers. 5. Filter by project, team, or issue type to find where bottlenecks sit. 6. Review at sprint close, export the chart, and share insights with stakeholders. 7. Over time, use historical data to sharpen estimation and sprint planning.
Best practices for agile teams using Tempo burndown charts
Log time daily to keep burndown data accurate.
Track both planned and logged hours so discrepancies surface early.
Use filters for granular insight – analyze by user, project, or account.
Compare multiple sprints to refine estimates and improve velocity.
Include burndown reviews in retrospectives to drive continuous improvement.
Integrate calendars and use AI-suggested timesheet entries to make logging painless and consistent.
Reporting giant TransUnion saved $750,000 annually with Timesheets. See how they did it.
Get more from your agile reporting
Tempo's burndown reporting for Jira brings agile tracking, time logging, and project planning into one unified view. By visualizing actual hours worked against planned goals, it gives teams the insight to stay on track and deliver on time.
Timesheets
Optimize your projects, teams, and resources
The #1 time-tracking app for Jira. Timesheets seamlessly integrates with Jira and your existing workflows to help you track time for accounting, CapEx tracking, client billing, compliance, and more.
Start a Free TrialFrequently Asked Questions
Couldn't find what you need?Go to our documentation
A burndown report in Jira is a visual chart that tracks how much work remains in a sprint or project over time. The chart shows remaining work on the vertical axis (measured in hours, story points, or tasks) and time on the horizontal axis (typically the sprint duration). Teams use burndown reports to monitor progress, identify if they're on track to meet sprint goals, and spot potential blockers early. Tempo's burndown report enhances standard Jira burndown charts by connecting actual logged time from Tempo Timesheets to project progress, giving teams a more accurate view of real effort versus planned work.
To create a burndown chart in Jira with Tempo, start by estimating the total hours or workload for your sprint. Team members then log their time daily using Tempo Timesheets. The burndown report updates automatically based on this logged time, showing remaining hours versus your ideal progress line. You can customize the view by filtering by project, team, account, or user to analyze specific areas. Access the burndown report through Tempo's reporting interface within Jira, where you can also export the chart to share with stakeholders or review during sprint retrospectives.
A burndown chart shows how much work remains over time, starting with the total work and tracking downward as tasks are completed. A burnup chart shows the opposite – it tracks completed work moving upward from zero toward the total scope. Burndown charts help teams see if they'll finish on time by showing whether remaining work is decreasing fast enough. Burnup charts make it easier to see scope changes because they display both completed work and total scope as separate lines. Tempo supports both chart types, allowing you to choose the visualization that best fits your team's workflow and reporting needs.
Related articles
Unlock the potential of burndown charts and learn how this powerful tool can help you visualize your project’s path from kick-off to delivery.
Discover the best Jira dashboard examples to track sprint progress, visualize key metrics, and customize reports for a more efficient workflow.
The Jira Sprint Report supports and facilitates the micro-planning that should be happening in your daily stand-ups, enabling you to stay on track.
Issue history reporting in Custom Charts for Jira & Confluence lets you make burndown reports for sprints, epics, and releases across multiple teams.
Did you know you can use Timesheets data to track project progress by billable hours and more – all within the Structure interface?
With a deep understanding of your team’s activity, you’ll be better equipped to make the decisions that matter.
Jira Version Reports provide excellent visibility of your delivery timeline so that scrum teams can manage risk and identify uncertainty.
Depending on the department and requirements, Structure can be 'unfolded' to track KPIs in Jira, in real time.
