Time tracking summary in Epics - Feature stopped working

Question

Hello!

I have a quick question about time tracking native feature in Jira.

Somewhat 2 months ago I noticed Jira started automatically tracks and shows time summary in Epics based on estimated/logged hours against child issues:

But last week this functionality returned back to the need of manually entering the time for us (same Epic):

Any thoughts on how to turn this super handy feature back on? We wasn't using any external addons/plugins for this nor do we made any changes in general Jira setup in both cases.

Thanks.

Anton from JetHeads_io · Answer

Thanks for the follow-up!

Sounds like it may have been part of an internal or experimental Atlassian rollout — there are many community threads discussing how to replicate this behavior using automation, which suggests it wasn’t widely available or officially released.

The most practical workaround I see in your case is to use JetTime or a similar app from the Marketplace.

Ana_usgjrh · Answer

Hi Anton,

Thank you for your reply.

We don't have any automation setup for such case and we don't use sub-tasks at all.

The time tracking worked for said Epics with tasks as child issues as displayed on the screenshot I attacged.

Anton from JetHeads_io · Answer

Hey, @Ana! 👋

Jira's native time tracking only rolls up time from sub-tasks to their parent tasks, but not from child issues (like tasks or stories) to their Epic. So even if all work is properly logged under tasks within an Epic, the Epic itself won’t show a summary unless time is manually entered or you set up automation.

What likely happened is that your team had an automation rule in place that was summing up time from child issues and adding it manually to the Epic. This kind of setup doesn't require third-party apps, and it's a fairly common workaround shared in the community to simulate roll-ups for Epics.

Just for context:

Jira Free & Standard do not support any form of native roll-ups to Epics.

Jira Premium does include Advanced Roadmaps, which can show roll-ups in the planning views — but not in the Epic issue view itself.

If you’re looking for a consistent and automated way to track time at the Epic level — it rolls sub-tasks time on the Epic level out of the box (and more), check out JetTime.

With JetTime, you can track anything — not just time — by creating custom work log fields and building powerful, flexible reports tailored to your needs. It’s also privacy-first and fully Runs on Atlassian, so your data never leaves Jira.

👉 JetTime on the Atlassian Marketplace

— Anton, from JetTime