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  • Calculate the number of business days between the start date and due date, then populate the value i

Calculate the number of business days between the start date and due date, then populate the value i

Sandy Hsieh
January 21, 2026

Hello all,

I’m having trouble setting up a Jira automation on a business board.

Relevant fields:

  • Due date

  • Start date (appears to be a custom field created by a Jira admin)

  • Total Work Est. (I’ve tried number)

Goal:
When an issue is updated and both the start date and due date are populated, calculate the number of business days between them and store the result in the Total Work Est. field. The output format is flexible (e.g., 5,days). 

I have tried to set up but it doesn't work. Please advise me to fix it. Thank you !

E.g 

Start date : 12/1

Due date : 12/3

Total Work Est. : 3 days

The calculation is based on the number of business days between the two dates (excluding the start date); +1 is added to include both the start and end dates.

Screenshot 2026-01-21 at 21.45.34.png

4 answers

1 accepted

2 votes
Answer accepted
Nikola Perisic
Community Champion
January 21, 2026

Hello @Sandy Hsieh 

This is the setup from my side

Screenshot 2026-01-21 at 15.32.32.png

Make sure that your action is setup correctly.

Sandy Hsieh
February 1, 2026

Hi @Nikola Perisic 

Thank you. It works!!

3 votes
Jack Brickey
Community Champion
January 21, 2026

Hi @Sandy Hsieh , there are similar questions in the community that might assist you with your question. I found this one that is almost exactly the same. Have a look and if it is not helpful please share more information about your actual automation so that I could help assist further. Using the log action is always a good idea to understand what is going on with your rule.

Calculate business days between start date and due date, then insert into new issue field 

 

0 votes
Iryna Komarnitska_SaaSJet_
Atlassian Partner
January 22, 2026

Hi @Sandy Hsieh ,

Unfortunately, Jira doesn’t fully support business calendars. Some helpful workarounds have already been shared above—you can use those as an alternative. If you’re open to using a third-party app, you might also consider Time in Status by SaaSJet (built by my team).

With the app, you can configure business calendars per team, assignee, and more. Then you can generate reports such as time in status, issue age, and other cycle-time metrics—all calculated based on your working hours.

image-20250724-144352.png

image-20250724-144421.png

You can also add these reports as gadgets to your Jira dashboards.

Group 2 (4).png

Hope this helps!

0 votes
Christos Markoulatos -Relational-
Community Champion
January 21, 2026

Hi @Sandy Hsieh 

use something like 

{{#=}}
{{ issue.duedate.format("yyyy-MM-dd").toDate
     .diff(
       issue.created.convertToTimeZone("Europe/Athens").format("yyyy-MM-dd").toDate
     ).businessDays.abs
}} + 1
{{/}}

replace the fields with your own fields and adjust for your timezone

I matter if your fields are Date fields or datetime fields

Hope this helps!

Sandy Hsieh
February 1, 2026

Hi @Christos Markoulatos -Relational- 

I don't know why it doesn't work. It shows that no action performed. Can youScreenshot 2026-02-01 at 17.30.36.png

Screenshot 2026-02-01 at 17.29.38.png

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