nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Sum numeric values from a custom field

Andreas Safar

For better capacity planning we introduced the custom fields "FE-Estimates" and "BE-Estimates".

Both are numeric fields.

So now I want to sum all values from all stories into the same custom field within an Epic.

How can I do that?

I tried the following but it's not working

Accepted answers

Bill Sheboy

Hello, community!

As noted in the other answers for this question, summing custom fields with Jira Cloud may use the Lookup Issues action: https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-automation-actions/#Lookup-issues

However for Jira Server and Data Center, the initial version of Lookup Issues does not support all fields yet. Please watch / vote here to see progress on that work: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JIRAAUTOSERVER-877

The work-arounds for Server and Data Center versions depend upon what you want to do with the sum value(s):

If you need them for a message / email, and your rule does not have any existing branches, you could try the bulk-handling feature: https://confluence.atlassian.com/automation/run-a-rule-against-issues-in-bulk-993924653.html This provides the {{issues}} smart value (and note that one is plural), and so the same list functions, like sum, may be used.
However if your rule is already using a branch for something else, please try calling the REST API function for an issue search with JQL, using the Send Web Request action. The response's body is a list of issues. To learn about using this technique, please look here:
- https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-articles/Automation-for-Jira-Send-web-request-using-Jira-REST-API/ba-p/1443828
- https://confluence.atlassian.com/automation/jira-smart-values-issues-993924860.html#Jirasmartvaluesissues-webhookResponsewebhookResponse

Using that second method, a custom field is summed like this:

{{webhookResponse.body.issues.fields.customfield_12345.sum}}

If you run into problems, remember to write the response body to the audit log and confirm you have the correct smart values for your fields.

Kind regards,
Bill

All comments

Jack Brickey

You cannot sum values across all stories. The automation math functions work within an issue. So you can sum two numeric fields within an issue. You might need to look at some add-on for this.

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Andreas Safar -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Yes, and...to what Jack noted: Are you using the Server or the Cloud version?

I note you are trying to sum custom field values with Lookup Issues.

First, Lookup Issues is only supported for Cloud. The equivalent for Server is a scheduled JQL rule which uses the "batch" option.
If you are on Cloud, Lookup Issues only supports a limited number of fields at this time. Here is the suggestion to add more fields: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-75018

Best regards,
Bill

Andreas Safar

Thank you for your reply. We are using the cloud version.

In other threads I saw comments where the story points or time estimates are summed up in the appropriate fields of their epic. So I was hoping to do the same just with the custom fields. Something like this:

Story 1 has value '5' in custom field

Story 2 gets a '3' entered into the custom field

Both stories are linked to the same epic

-> custom field within the epic gets updated from '5' to '8'

and so on when the custom field is set/changed/removed

Bill Sheboy

Andreas you cannot sum on custom fields with Lookup Issues in an automation rule, yet...

Two possible work-arounds are:

Whenever a field of interest changes in a child issue, update the parent using the Change Log. The risk here is getting out of synch if the rule does not trigger or when multiple issues change in a short timeframe.
Using a webrequest, the REST API, a search filter, and text functions, get all of the issues for the parent and then convert the webrequest response into a list...using sum to add up the results. The impact is this rule is several seconds slower, but it will be accurate.

Timur Khakimyanov

I just spent few hours trying to implement Bill Sheboy second proposal, and finally success! Hope this post will help someone to save time:

No rocket science, but you have to be very careful about parameter names and such.

Bill Sheboy

Hi @Timur Khakimyanov -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community, and well done!

The part I find interesting about your web request, custom data is passing the entire {{lookupIsssues}} smart value rather than parsing the keys/id values out into a CSV list, such as: {{#lookupIssues}}{{key}}{{^last}},{{/}}{{/}}

Looks like your version works for you, and so meets the goal!

Kind regards,
Bill

Andreas Safar

Hi @Timur Khakimyanov thank you for your post. I' ve copied your solution and it works for me.

Bill Sheboy

Hello, community!

The work-arounds for Server and Data Center versions depend upon what you want to do with the sum value(s):

If you need them for a message / email, and your rule does not have any existing branches, you could try the bulk-handling feature: https://confluence.atlassian.com/automation/run-a-rule-against-issues-in-bulk-993924653.html This provides the {{issues}} smart value (and note that one is plural), and so the same list functions, like sum, may be used.
However if your rule is already using a branch for something else, please try calling the REST API function for an issue search with JQL, using the Send Web Request action. The response's body is a list of issues. To learn about using this technique, please look here:
- https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-articles/Automation-for-Jira-Send-web-request-using-Jira-REST-API/ba-p/1443828
- https://confluence.atlassian.com/automation/jira-smart-values-issues-993924860.html#Jirasmartvaluesissues-webhookResponsewebhookResponse

Using that second method, a custom field is summed like this:

{{webhookResponse.body.issues.fields.customfield_12345.sum}}

If you run into problems, remember to write the response body to the audit log and confirm you have the correct smart values for your fields.

Kind regards,
Bill

Jack Brickey

Excellent write up Bill. This is sure to help others.

Matthew Mallard_m7eijj

For anyone coming to this post in 2025, make darn sure you have "Wait for response" checkbox checked. I spent WAY too much time troubleshooting why I wasn't getting a response without realizing the checkbox wasn't checked.

Also super important to use webhookResponse if you're DC and webResponse if you're Cloud AND to set your maxResults to 100 in your custom data. I think that's mentioned in another comment on this thread.

Welcome!

It looks like you're new here. Sign in or register to get started.

Quick Links

Find more posts tagged with

custom-field

automation