The Epic says 7 hours. The whole tree under it carries 31. A Story in a team-managed space shows an Original estimate of 2h, although its subtasks add up to 8h. A filter for Epics over budget finds nothing, because the totals aren't searchable.
All three come from the same behaviour, and the question keeps coming back to the Community, most recently as Time Spent roll-up from Story/Task subtasks to Epic. The feature request behind it, JRACLOUD-70150, dates from 2018.
This article maps how Jira Cloud adds up estimates and time spent across Subtask → Story → Epic, where the totals show up, and the native ways to get the whole-Epic number. We tested it on a Jira Cloud Standard site on 29 October 2026, in a company-managed and a team-managed space; points from Atlassian's documentation are marked as such.
As of October 2026, Jira Cloud rolls time up exactly one level: the Σ values on a work item cover that work item and its direct children, so an Epic never includes the time logged or estimated on its Stories' subtasks. This holds in company-managed and team-managed spaces alike, and no Σ value can be used in JQL.
Our test Epic: each Story's Σ includes its subtasks, but the Epic's Σ stops at the Stories. 7 hours in Jira, 31 hours in the tree.
Why doesn't my Epic include subtask time?
Our test data: an Epic with 1h of its own, Stories with 2h and 4h, and two subtasks under each (3h and 5h, 6h and 10h); 18h of time spent in total.
- Σ Original Estimate and Σ Time Spent add a work item's own value to its direct children. The first Story shows 10h (2 + 3 + 5). The Epic shows 7h: its own 1h plus the Stories' own 2h and 4h, without a single subtask.
- The Time tracking panel has an Include subtasks checkbox, ticked by default. On the first Story it reads "7h logged" (1h unticked); on the Epic, "3h logged": no subtasks. In a team-managed Epic the checkbox is called Include child work items, with the same result.
- The Original estimate field never adds anything up. It shows the work item's own value, on every level. Most "my estimate doesn't aggregate" threads are about this field.
Atlassian describes it the same way in JRACLOUD-70150: "Time estimate and time tracking currently roll-up to 1 level up based on the hierarchy. The roll-up doesn't go beyond that." A related request, JRACLOUD-90636, is Not Being Considered. One more limit, per Atlassian's docs: "If a work item has more than 100 child work items, you can't include them in time tracking."
The Epic: each Story's Σ includes its subtasks, the Time tracking panel stops at the Stories, and the two number fields hold the full total from the rule described below.
Team-managed spaces have Σ too
The accepted answer in a popular thread says the Σ fields exist only in company-managed spaces. Our team-managed space gave the same totals. The catch: it didn't have Time tracking and Original estimate in the Epic, Story and Subtask layouts until we dragged them in.
Where you can see the Σ values
- List view: add Σ Original Estimate and Σ Time Spent from the column picker. Unlike the plain Original estimate and Time Spent columns, the Σ columns can't be sorted.
- Child work items panel: Configure columns offers the Σ fields. Right after you add one, the column stays empty; reload the page and the values appear.
- Boards and backlog: a Story card in a company-managed backlog shows its Σ values, and the board's View settings → Show fields offers them in both space types. (We didn't check cards in an active sprint.)
With an 8-hour working day, Jira shows 10h as "1 day, 2 hours", which is easy to misread as 26 hours.
List view with the Σ columns. Each Story includes its subtasks, but the Epic row shows 7 hours estimated and 3 hours logged.
How do I get the total for the whole Epic?
1. JQL: list the whole tree (no totals)
JQL can't add up, but it can collect everything under an Epic:
- Company-managed:
parentEpic = CHK-1 returned the Epic, both Stories and all four subtasks. - Team-managed:
parentEpic = MOB-1 returned only the Epic itself. The JQL functions docs mark parentEpic "Only applicable for company-managed spaces", and JRACLOUD-83175 asks for the team-managed version. What works in both: key = MOB-1 OR parent = MOB-1 OR parent in (MOB-2, MOB-5), if you know the Story keys.
For a one-off total, export that list and add up the plain Original estimate and Time Spent columns, never the Σ ones: Σ would count every subtask twice.
Where it ends:
- The Σ fields don't exist in JQL.
"Σ Time Spent" > 6h fails with "Field 'Σ Time Spent' does not exist or you do not have permission to view it." originalEstimate and timespent work, but on own values: originalEstimate > 6h found only the 10h subtask, not the Story whose Σ is 10h. - The tree functions are Premium.
issue in portfolioChildIssuesOf("CHK-1") answers "This JQL function is only available to Jira Premium users."
The same query in both space types: parentEpic returns the whole tree in company-managed and only the Epic in team-managed.
2. A scheduled Automation rule (the full total)
The only native way we found to put the whole-tree number on the Epic: a daily rule that writes it into two number fields.
- In Settings → Fields, create two Number fields, for example Epic total estimate (h) and Epic total time spent (h), and add them to the Epic: their field context has to cover the space and the Epic work type, and they have to be on the Epic's screens, or the rule has nothing to write to. Don't write into the Epic's own Original estimate: the rule reads it, so the next run would count the total again.
- Add a Scheduled trigger, every day, with Run a JQL search on
issuetype = Epic AND statusCategory != Done. Untick "Only include work items that have changed since the last time this flow executed". It's ticked by default, and the Epic doesn't change when a subtask does. With it ticked, we changed a subtask from 3h to 4h: the audit log said "No actions performed" and the Epic stayed at 31. Unticked, the next run wrote 32 (Atlassian KB on this option). - Add Lookup work items with
parent = {{issue.key}}. It returns the Epic's direct children (Stories, Tasks, Bugs), and each one's Σ already includes its subtasks. If an Epic has children in other spaces, make the rule multi-space. - Add Edit work item fields and set the two fields:
Epic total estimate (h):
{{#=}}ROUND(({{issue.timetracking.originalEstimateSeconds|0}} + {{lookupIssues.Σ Original Estimate.sum|0}}) / 3600, 1){{/}}
Epic total time spent (h):
{{#=}}ROUND(({{issue.timetracking.timeSpentSeconds|0}} + {{lookupIssues.Σ Time Spent.sum|0}}) / 3600, 1){{/}}
On our Epic, the rule wrote 31 and 18: the whole tree. With one subtask at 3h 20m, plain division wrote 31.333; ROUND(…, 1) gave 31.3. The fields are ordinary number fields, so "Epic total estimate (h)" > 30 finds the Epic in JQL. In the team-managed space we checked the smart values (same sums), not the field update; fields there belong to one space, so the number fields would live in that space's Epic layout.
The rule's trigger, with the checkbox under the JQL unticked, the way it should be. It's ticked by default, and then Epics keep an old total.
Where it ends:
- A wrong smart value name returns 0, silently.
{{lookupIssues.originalEstimate.sum}} gave 0 without an error, one way an Epic total "resets to 0". {{lookupIssues.timetracking.originalEstimateSeconds.sum}} works, but adds only the children's own values. An empty Σ comes back as empty text; |0 turns it into 0. - Daily edits stay quiet when nothing changed. A run that writes the same value left no history entry and kept the Updated date; a new total adds one entry. To spare watchers the email, untick More options → Send notifications? in the edit action (the rule's actor must be an admin or space admin).
- The total is as fresh as the last run, and Lookup work items returns at most 100 work items (Automation actions docs). Done Epics drop out of the JQL and keep their last total. An event-driven version would have to cover subtasks, Stories, moves and deleted worklogs; we didn't build it.
3. Plans (Premium)
A plan can infer parent values from children (Atlassian docs), but its Estimate field "shows a work item's remaining estimate, not its original estimate" (Atlassian KB). Our site runs Standard, so we didn't test whether subtasks reach the Epic's total there.
The scorecard
Option | Epic total (whole tree) | Searchable | Team-managed |
|---|
Σ columns and fields | No, one level (7h) | No | Same as company-managed |
Time tracking panel | No, one level (3h logged) | No | Same |
JQL (parentEpic, parent in) | Lists the tree, no sum | Own values only | parentEpic returns only the Epic
|
Scheduled Automation rule | Yes (31h) | Yes, as a number field | Same smart values; field update not tested |
Formula field | No | – | Saves, shows None |
Plans (Premium) | Not tested | – | – |
Where the full Epic total shows up: only the scheduled rule gets past one level.
What isn't there yet
- Formula fields can't do it. Generally available since July 2026, they "can only run using data within a single work item" (Atlassian docs), and the editor doesn't offer Original estimate, Time Spent or the Σ fields. Typing
{Original estimate} + 1 turns the button into Fix formula, and in a company-managed space Create stays disabled. A team-managed space let us save the same formula, and the field then showed "None". Per the GA announcement, "rolling up values from child work items to a parent Epic" is "not yet supported" (Community announcement). - No search or sort by Σ, as above.
A formula field referencing Original estimate: Jira offers to fix the formula and won't create the field.
A note on the time tracking reports
About the Time Tracking, User Workload and Version Workload reports, Atlassian wrote on the Community that they "will still schedule them for deprecation unless we hear more from users and the community." On our site the Time Tracking Report is still under Reports → More reports; the two workload reports aren't. Don't build a monthly process on them.
Quick answers
Does original estimate aggregate from subtasks to parent story in team-managed projects?
Yes, in Σ Original Estimate and in the Time tracking panel, not in the Original estimate field itself. Add the time tracking fields to the work type layout first.
Why can't I add the aggregated Original Estimate field to an Issue card?
As of October 2026, board View settings → Show fields offers the Σ fields in both space types. We saw the values on company-managed backlog cards, not in an active sprint.
Why is the Σ Original Estimate column empty in the child work items panel?
In our test it stayed empty right after we added it. Reload the page.
How do I roll Time Spent up from subtasks to the Epic?
No setting does it. Use the scheduled rule above, with "Only include work items that have changed…" unticked.
Jira Cloud adds time up one level, in both space types. For a Story that's enough; for an Epic, the whole-tree number exists only where a rule writes it. If you'd like Jira to do that itself, JRACLOUD-70150 is where the votes count.
How do you report Epic time today? A rule like this one, Plans, or a spreadsheet at the end of the month?
Michał Krysiuk, Terano Apps
