How to filter a timeline to find work items using a custom field

[Andrea Billings]

We have created a large plan with several individuals assigned work across two levels of leadership.  We assigned our Senior Team (the highest level of our org chart) to the work items as the "assignees".   We then created a custom field for the individuals at the next level of our leadership org chart as the individuals accountable for the work.  However, I cannot find a way to easily search or filter the work items based on this custom field.  We'd like to have a way for these individuals to easily locate the work they are accountable for. What are the best recommendations?

Thanks!

[Nagabharana S]

Hello @Andrea Billings ,

Great question — and you're definitely not alone in this use case. Many teams using Advanced Roadmaps or large-scale Jira projects need to separate Assignee from Accountable/Responsible roles for work tracking and leadership visibility. Here's how you can solve it:

Recommended Solutions

1. Ensure Your Custom Field Is Searchable

• Go to Jira Settings > Issues > Custom Fields

• Find your custom field (e.g. “Accountable Person”)

• Click the cog ⚙️ > Contexts and default value

• Make sure the field is:

  • Visible on the relevant screens (Create, Edit, View)

  • Associated with the relevant projects

  • Indexed as Searchable (default for User Picker fields, but confirm)

2. Use JQL to Filter Work by Custom Field

If your custom field is a User Picker (single user), you can use JQL like:

"Accountable Person" = currentUser()

Or for a specific person:

"Accountable Person" = "john.doe@example.com"

Create filters with these queries and share them or pin them to dashboards.

3. Create a Dashboard for Accountable Roles

• Use gadgets like:

  • Filter Results (for list of work items)

  • Pie Chart (group by status or epic)

• Each accountable person can have their own filter feeding into their section of the dashboard.

Let me know your Jira plan (Standard, Premium, etc.) and if you want sample filters or automation rules — happy to help build them 💡

[Andrea Billings]

Hello @Nagabharana S 

Our organization has the Premium Jira plan.

I have made sure that the field "Accountable" is visible, associated with the relevant projects, and searchable.  I can assign individuals to this filed in the timeline (see image 1 below).

However, when I select the "filter" option on the timeline, I am not seeing this custom field ("Accountable") as an option from the drop-down list (see image 2 below).   We're hoping to have an option similar to the "Assignee" filter option, where we can select any user and it will pull up any work items that has their name under the "Accountable" custom field.