Capacity Planner is an advanced capacity and resource planning tool for Jira, designed to help managers forecast workloads, balance resources, and monitor team availability. With real-time capacity insights, recurring plans, and seamless integration with Timesheets and Financial Manager, Capacity Planner enables organizations to effectively manage projects and teams — all within Jira.

What are the main features of Capacity Planner?

Team capacity planning and management

Capacity Planner provides a clear, real-time view of team capacity, allowing managers to identify resource constraints and avoid overallocation.

• Quarterly team capacity view to assess workload and availability over a selected period
• Monitoring shared resources to prevent over-allocating team members working across multiple projects
• Capacity indicators (weekly, monthly, quarterly) for a quick understanding of workload distribution
• Jira epic estimates displayed in hours or full-time equivalent (FTE) units to align effort with reality
• Team capacity dashboard that combines Jira estimates and planned time to assess team capacity

Resource planning and allocation

Capacity Planner helps allocate the right resources to the right tasks — even before specific team members are identified.

• Skills management to plan projects based on the team’s skill sets
• Generic resources to assign tasks to placeholder roles when individuals are not yet identified
• Role management to define responsibilities within Tempo teams or Financial Manager projects
• Recurring plans to automate repeated work without recreating plans each week
• Plan approvals for managers and team leads to review and approve workload distribution
• Automated email alerts to notify team members of updates, approvals, and important actions

Automation for Jira-based project planning

Capacity Planner synchronizes plans with Jira issues to ensure that resource planning and project management stay aligned.

• Sync plans with Jira issues: new Jira issues can create Tempo plans automatically; updates flow both ways between Tempo and Jira

Reporting for effective project and resource tracking

Capacity Planner offers detailed reporting tools to track planned and available capacity, helping managers make informed decisions.

• Team member capacity report to see each employee’s workload and availability over time
• Planned time reports broken down by teams, users, and projects
• Plan vs. actual reports (when combined with Timesheets) to compare forecasts against logged work

Integrations with Jira and Tempo apps

Capacity Planner connects seamlessly with other Jira and Tempo solutions, offering complete visibility across time, resources, and budgets.

• Calendar integrations (Google Calendar, Office 365) to automatically generate work plans from calendar events
• APIs and webhooks for custom integrations with third-party software
• Timesheets integration to compare planned vs. actual hours logged by team members
• Financial Manager integration to forecast future project costs and revenues
• Structure PPM for a consolidated view of planned time and project data
• Gantt Charts for Structure PPM to visualize capacity across teams, even for tasks not shown on the Gantt chart

Appvizer’s opinion

Capacity Planner is an essential tool for organizations that need to manage team workloads and plan resources directly within Jira. Its ability to forecast capacity, balance resource allocation, and synchronize with Jira issues makes it especially useful for managers and project leads handling multiple teams and projects. With the support for generic resources and skills management, Capacity Planner is ideal for companies running parallel projects in IT, consulting, or creative industries. It can be used on its own or alongside Timesheets and Financial Manager for a more complete resource and financial management workflow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I try Capacity Planner before purchasing?

Yes, you can try Capacity Planner for free to explore its features and assess how it can support your teams.

Can I plan work across different time zones, geographies, and holidays?

Absolutely. You can create custom workload schemes to match working hours based on location, time zone, or employment type (full-time, part-time). Every Tempo user is assigned to a workload scheme — by default, new users are added to the standard workload scheme, but this can be customized.

How can I view how much capacity my teams and members have?

The team capacity dashboard gives managers a comprehensive view of team size, workload, and availability in hours or FTEs, supporting hiring and resource reallocation decisions.

Can I plan work for projects before specific team members are assigned?

Yes, generic resources allow you to allocate tasks before knowing exactly which individuals will handle them. They’re useful during early planning stages or when replacing unavailable team members. Once the actual resource is identified, you can easily swap out the generic placeholder.

Do I need Timesheets to use Capacity Planner?

No, Capacity Planner works independently. However, if you want to compare planned time to actual hours worked, you’ll need to use Timesheets in conjunction with Capacity Planner.