Dashboard widget to show time elapsed between dates

[Marine Redon]

Hi all,

I have widgets showing completion rate of issues per sprint and milestone. However, in order to contextualise how much progress we would expect at this stage of the sprint/milestone, I would like to add a progress bar simply showing time elapsed between dates.

It doesn't even need to be dynamic, I can set the start and end dates of the sprint/milestone. The sprint health gadget shows the time elapsed and work complete for the sprint, but I cannot do the same for milestones, or any other set time periods.

I can do a countdown to a date, but I need the percentage of time elapsed to compare it to the completion rate. The burndown chart also provides a guideline, but again I need this information in percentage format.

E.g. say our completion rate is 21% for the milestone, but we are 33% through (10 days elapsed out of 30d milestone). It means we're not on track.

[Tomislav Tobijas · Accepted solution]

Hi @Marine Redon ,

Are you using native features/gadgets or are you using some third-party/Marketplace solutions as well? Natively, you have this concept: WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). Basically, they are fairly limited, which is why people tend to turn to third-party solutions.

Like, one alternative would be to create a custom field, such as "Time Elapsed %," and then, with automation, calculate the percentage between the two dates. Then you could add that field to your dashboard and gadgets such as 'filter results'... But this does sound like overkill (maybe) 🤔

You could probably build something like this in Analytics, but this is an Enterprise-only app 🫤

Cheers,
Tobi

[Marine Redon]

Hi Tobi,

I'm open to third party apps, but not willing to spend money just to display this information.

I was hoping a custom ratio might do it, but can't see a way to input data myself rather than track dynamic issue data.

There's a few widgets to show custom countdowns, it's a shame none can do this simple job.

[Tomislav Tobijas]

If you're open for this, you could maybe check what Rovo Studio can build > see Build custom Forge apps in Rovo Studio - no code required! 

Basically, you could prompt Rovo to build a Forge app for you. Now, I'm not sure if it could actually build a custom widget for the dashboard, but you could give it a shot. Our team did build a few really cool custom solutions that weren't available out of the box, and we didn't have to buy apps just for this one functionality that we needed at a specific moment. 💡

[Marine Redon]

Wow, it did exactly what I wanted. I had to go back and forth a few times to refine it and correct some display issues, but it got there in the end.

 

Thank you very much @Tomislav Tobijas   I had no idea this was available.

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Uu nice! I was skeptical if this would work or not, but I'm glad it did 😄

I'm going to share this with our team who are exploring Apps in Rovo Studio, so they are aware it's possible.

Thanks for sharing the result :)

[Dmytro Rudenko _ Release Management]

Hi Marine,

You've found a real gap - Sprint Health does compute elapsed-vs-complete, but that logic is locked to the sprint object. Nothing native carries it over to fix versions or arbitrary date ranges as a percentage.

Quick caveat before you wire anything up: a flat "time elapsed %" assumes linear progress - 33% of days gone should mean ~33% done. Milestones rarely burn that evenly; work back-loads toward the deadline, so the bare number can read "behind" when the plan was never linear. Worth deciding whether a single % is the signal you'll actually act on. If you do want the raw number natively, Paul's and Tobi's custom-field-plus-automation route is the cleanest - just remember {{now}} is UTC, and use .businessDays if your "30 days" means working days.

Disclosure: I work at Release Management Apps.
That said, I'd push back on the percentage itself. Your real goal isn't the number, it's spotting "behind schedule" at a glance, and a single % hides the assumption that makes it misleading. Our Release Roadmap gadget solves the underlying read more honestly: each milestone or version sits as a bar on a real timeline, with a completion progress bar inside it and a "today" marker - so on-track vs behind is immediate. How full the bar is, vs where today falls between the start and release date. It runs across fix versions, cross-project releases, and custom JQL (not just sprints) and drops straight onto your existing dashboard next to your completion widgets. Pair it with the Countdown gadget if you want the deadline pressure front and centre.

Release Gadgets on the Marketplace: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1223487/release-gadgets-roadmap-calendar-burnup-status-for-jira?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

Either way, the real move is decoupling the time read from the sprint object - and ideally swapping the flat percentage for something that shows the pace, not just the gap.

Best, Dmytro

[Paul Glantschnig _Appfire_]

Hi @Marine Redon,

As far as I know there's no native gadget for this. The Sprint Health gadget calculates time elapsed for a sprint, but nothing native does it for milestones or arbitrary date ranges as a percentage.

One possible solution might be the "custom-field-plus-automation" approach:

1. Create a number custom field, e.g. "Time Elapsed %".
2. Build a scheduled automation rule (so it recalculates regularly) that computes the percentage from your start and end date fields. Jira's date smart values give you the pieces:
   • Elapsed days: {{now.diff(issue.startDate).days}}
   • Total days: {{issue.endDate.diff(issue.startDate).days}}
   • Combine them in a math expression to get the percentage: {{#=}}{{now.diff(issue.startDate).days}} / {{issue.endDate.diff(issue.startDate).days}} * 100{{/}}
   • Use the "Edit work item" action to write that into your Time Elapsed % field.
3. Add the field to a Filter Results gadget on your dashboard next to your completion-rate widgets.

{{now}} is in UTC, and .diff also supports businessDays if you'd rather exclude weekends. Confirm the exact field names in your automation editor.

It's a bit of setup, but it keeps everything on the native dashboard alongside your existing gadgets.

I haven't tried this out, so no guarantees :) 

Kind regards, Paul

[Paul Glantschnig _Appfire_]

Following up on my previous comment @Marine Redon

If you're open to an app from the Atlassian Marketplace, JXL lets you compute the percentage live in a sheet with a formula column, so there's no custom field to populate and nothing to schedule. A formula like this gives you percent of time elapsed:

ROUND(QUOTIENT(
  DATEDIF(CALENDAR_DATE_TO_DATE(this.startDate), NOW(), "D"),
  DATEDIF(CALENDAR_DATE_TO_DATE(this.startDate), CALENDAR_DATE_TO_DATE(this.dueDate), "D")
) * 100, 0)

You can put this alongside a completion-% column on your milestone issues and add a conditional-formatting rule to highlight rows where elapsed % is running ahead of completion %, which flags exactly the "not on track" case you described.

JXL shows this in its sheet view per item, but you could write a formula that only calculates it for certain work item types like epics or stories.

And a JXL view can also be shown in a dashboard.

Disclosure: I work on the team that builds JXL.

Best, Paul