In List page why are the estimate columns no longer formatted in the desired style?

[Jeremy FDLBand]

The Sum Original Estimate, Sum Time Spent and Sum Remaining Estimate no longer honor the Time Keeping desired formatting.  I am using hours but it shows up pretty unlike the Time Spent column that is in the desired hours.  

[James Gamble · Accepted solution]

Hi Jeremy,

This appears to be a Jira Cloud display issue rather than a problem with your time-tracking settings.

The regular Original Estimate and Time Spent columns are respecting your global Hours setting, but the three columns prefixed with Σ are aggregate fields. They include the value from the parent work item plus its subtasks, and the List view appears to be rendering those totals in Jira’s “pretty” format, such as weeks, days, and hours, instead of using the time display format selected under Settings > Work items > Time tracking.

Atlassian has an existing bug for the same underlying behavior in other Jira Cloud views, where time values ignore the global Hours setting and display in a pretty format instead.

I couldn’t find a separate public bug specifically for the Σ columns in the List view, but the behavior in your screenshot appears to be another instance of that limitation. The global setting is still configured in the location described here, and it should normally control whether Jira displays time as pretty, days, or hours.

Unfortunately, I don’t believe there’s a List-view setting that lets you format those aggregate columns independently. For now, the practical options are to use the non-aggregate columns when you don’t need subtask totals, or report the List-view behavior to Atlassian and reference JRACLOUD-69810 so they can confirm whether it should be tracked under that bug or logged separately.

Thanks,

James

[Jeremy FDLBand]

Something has changed as it was previously working (a few weeks ago).  I would like to report a bug or a hit to Atlassian.  Not sure how to do that.

[James Gamble]

Hi Jeremy,

Since this worked a few weeks ago and then changed, I agree it’s worth reporting as a possible regression.

You can submit it through Atlassian Support here.

You can reference JRACLOUD-69810 as a potentially related issue. Still, I’d make it clear that your report focuses on the aggregate Σ columns in the List view, and that this behavior changed recently. Atlassian Support can confirm whether it belongs under that existing issue or create a separate public bug for the regression.

Atlassian also provides a direct bug-report path from its Jira Cloud help page.

Thanks,

James

[Paul Glantschnig _Appfire_]

Hi @Jeremy FDLBand,

since the regular time-tracking columns still respect your Hours setting while only the Σ columns changed, I agree with @James Gamble that this looks like a display regression worth raising with Atlassian Support.

If you need consistently formatted totals while that gets sorted out, and you're open to apps from the Atlassian Marketplace, JXL for Jira might be worth a look.

JXL is a full spreadsheet/table view of your work items. For time-tracking columns, you can choose the cell format yourself (Jira format, hours, days), so estimates and logged time always display the way you want:

You can also enable sum-ups to aggregate Original Estimate, Time Spent, and Remaining Estimate across the entire sheet, per grouping (e.g. per assignee or sprint), or across parent/subtask hierarchies, and those totals use the same format settings.

Disclosure: I work for the team that builds JXL.

Best, Paul