Migrate from Paymo to Jira

Paymo Projects map directly to Jira Projects. Each Paymo project carries status, budget, hourly rate, and client association. We map these to Jira Project fields and custom fields. The Jira Project key (e.g., PROJ) is derived from the Paymo project name. If the customer has multiple Jira projects (by team or product), we apply a project key convention during scoping and create the target project structure before migration begins.

Paymo Task Lists are ordered groupings within a Project. We map each Task List to a Jira Epic at the project level, and the tasks within it become Stories or Tasks linked to that Epic. If the customer's workflow does not use Epics, we flatten Task Lists to a backlog grouping label. We preserve the Task List ordering as Epic rank or label within the Jira project backlog. Task List names become Epic summary or label fields in Jira.

Paymo Tasks carry name, description, start/due dates, estimated hours, assignees, priority, and status from the project Custom Workflow. We map these to Jira Issue fields: summary, description (migrated as Jira's native text format), duedate, timeestimate, assignee (resolved by email to Jira User), priority (mapped to Jira Priority values), and status (mapped to Jira Status categories To Do, In Progress, Done). Paymo custom task fields migrate to Jira custom fields, which must be pre-created in the destination Jira project before import.

Paymo Time Entries are linked to Tasks and carry date, duration, billable flag, hourly rate, and description. Jira Software does not have a native time tracking object. We migrate time entry data to Jira custom fields on the linked Issue: a numeric field for duration in minutes, a checkbox for billable, a currency field for hourly rate, and a text field for the time entry description. We also produce a supplemental CSV export of all time entries with task reference for customers who plan to implement a Jira-compatible time tracking app (Tempo, Clockify, TimeCamp) post-migration.

Paymo Clients are separate records linked to Projects and Invoices. Jira Software does not have a native Client or Company object. During scoping, the customer chooses a destination strategy: (a) a Client custom field on the Jira Project or Issues, (b) a Jira label with the client name for filtering, or (c) a separate contacts tool (HubSpot, Zoho CRM, or Google Contacts) linked via Jira custom field. We migrate client names and contact details as structured data for whichever strategy the customer selects.

Paymo's Custom Workflow feature (introduced March 2026) defines per-project Kanban status columns. Each project can have a different set of statuses. Jira uses three Status categories (To Do, In Progress, Done) with statuses within each. We map each Paymo project workflow status to a Jira Status, preserving the relative position in the Kanban flow. Any Paymo statuses without a Jira equivalent are flagged in the pre-migration report, and the customer chooses a fallback mapping (e.g., merged into an adjacent status or excluded). This is the highest-complexity part of the migration for customers using Custom Workflows heavily.

Paymo Milestones mark key project stages and are tied to Task Lists rather than individual tasks. In Jira, milestones map to Fix Version (for release-oriented milestones) or to a Label/tag with a naming convention (for phase-oriented milestones). We discuss the strategy with the customer during scoping. Milestone positioning relative to task dates may shift in Jira because Jira does not enforce Task List-level milestone anchoring.

Paymo task assignees are resolved by email against Jira User accounts. Any Paymo user without a matching Jira account is flagged in the reconciliation report. The customer provisions missing Jira users before the migration run. Projects without an assignee in Paymo remain unassigned in Jira unless the customer specifies a default assignee.

Paymo Project Templates bundle project structures including Task Lists, tasks, and workflows for reuse. Jira provides built-in project templates (Scrum, Kanban, Bug Tracking). We do not migrate template structure as code. We deliver a written description of each Paymo template's structure so the customer's Jira admin can configure an equivalent Jira project template or use Jira's built-in templates as the starting point.

Paymo Estimates are project-level financial approximations available on Small Office and Business tiers. Jira does not have a native estimate object. We migrate estimate values, line items, and statuses as custom fields on the Jira Project or as a linked Confluence page reference. For customers who need full estimate-to-invoice workflow, we recommend a separate billing tool integration post-migration.