Switch Guide: Moving from Jira to Birdview PSA
Jira started as a bug tracker and has evolved into an enormous platform that many teams find overcomplicated, overpriced, and over-engineered for their actual needs. Birdview PSA, built in Calgary, takes a different approach: a professional services automation platform that combines project management, resource planning, time tracking, and financial reporting in one coherent tool designed specifically for agencies, consultancies, and professional services teams. If your team is drowning in Jira configuration or you're an agency that needs more than ticket boards, this guide walks you through the switch.
Why Canadian Businesses Are Making the Switch
Jira is owned by Atlassian, an Australian company now headquartered in the United States. Jira Cloud stores data on Atlassian's AWS infrastructure, subject to US data laws. For Canadian professional services firms handling client data, sensitive project information, or government contracts, keeping data within Canadian borders matters. Birdview PSA is built and operated from Calgary, with Canadian data hosting and a team that understands the Canadian professional services market. Beyond sovereignty, many Jira refugees cite the same issues: complex workflows that require a dedicated admin, per-user pricing that gets expensive as teams grow, and a lack of native resource capacity planning that agencies actually need.
Quick Comparison
| Jira | Birdview PSA | |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Austin, TX (Atlassian) | Calgary, Canada 🍁 |
| Primary use case | Software development / issue tracking | Professional services / agency PM |
| Resource planning | Limited (plugin required) | Built-in capacity & resource planning |
| Time tracking | Basic (or Tempo add-on) | Native, integrated with billing |
| Project financials | Not included | Budget tracking, profitability reports |
| Gantt charts | Add-on (BigGantt, etc.) | Native Gantt view |
| Data hosting | AWS (US/Australia) | Canadian data centres |
| Pricing model | Per user/month | Per user/month, resource-based |
Step-by-Step Migration Guide
- Export your Jira data — In Jira, go to Settings → System → Backup Manager for a full XML export of your project data. For individual projects, use Project Settings → Export to get CSV exports of issues, epics, and sprints.
- Audit active projects — List all active Jira projects and identify which are truly active versus dormant. Only migrate what's needed. Archive closed projects rather than migrating historical noise.
- Set up Birdview PSA — Start your trial, configure your organization settings, fiscal year, and billing rates. Birdview's project structure centers on Client → Project → Task, which maps well to how agencies organize their work.
- Create your client list — Add clients in Birdview first, as projects are associated with clients. If you used Jira epics as project groupings, these typically map to Birdview projects.
- Migrate active projects — For each active Jira project, create a corresponding project in Birdview. Add tasks manually for in-progress work. For completed historical data, rely on your Jira export archive.
- Set up your resource pool — In Birdview, configure your team members, their roles, billable rates, and capacity. This is where Birdview shines compared to Jira — resource availability planning is first-class.
- Configure time tracking — Enable Birdview's time tracking module. Assign team members to projects and start tracking time. Import any open time entries from Jira/Tempo if applicable.
- Migrate open issues as tasks — For in-flight tickets/issues in Jira, create corresponding tasks in Birdview. Use CSV imports to speed this up for large backlogs.
- Run parallel for two weeks — Keep Jira active while your team gets comfortable in Birdview. Designate a cutover date and stop creating new items in Jira from that point.
Data Migration Checklist
- ☐ Jira full XML export downloaded
- ☐ Active project list documented
- ☐ Client list created in Birdview
- ☐ Active projects created in Birdview
- ☐ Team members and roles configured
- ☐ Billable rates set per resource and project type
- ☐ In-progress tasks migrated
- ☐ Open time entries transferred
- ☐ Project budgets and estimates entered
- ☐ Integrations configured (Slack, email, accounting)
- ☐ Team trained on Birdview workflows
- ☐ Jira subscription cancelled after cutover
Watch Out For
- Issue history vs. task management: Jira stores years of issue history with comments, attachments, and audit logs. Birdview is forward-looking project management. Accept that historical issue threads stay in Jira — export them and keep the archive accessible.
- Developer-specific workflows: If you have software development teams using Jira with Git integration (Bitbucket, GitHub), they may need Jira to stay for code-linked issue tracking. Birdview is optimized for professional services, not software development sprints.
- Custom fields: Jira's extensive custom field system doesn't have a direct import path. Document your most important custom fields and recreate equivalent tracking in Birdview's custom field options.
- Atlassian Confluence: If you also use Confluence for documentation, that's a separate migration conversation. Birdview doesn't include a wiki — consider Notion, Outline, or a self-hosted wiki for documentation.