Time in Status Issue Field: Excluding Non-Working Hours, Jira Automation, Dashboard Gadgets

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Standard Jira fields cover basic issue tracking, and every team has unique requirements that demand a more tailored approach. This is where custom fields come in—offering a way to capture specific data points, improve reporting accuracy, and streamline workflows. Imagine having instant access to the data points that matter most—customer impact, cost estimates, priority levels, or integration details. With custom fields, you can supercharge your reporting, automate workflows, and gain deeper insights into your projects. No more workarounds or missing information—just a Jira setup that works smarter, not harder. In this article, we'll talk about a custom field that calculates the time an issue has been in a particular status. You can create it using the Time in Status app. We will also consider the possibilities of its use on the board, in automation, and in gadgets.

Mastering Time Tracking in Jira with Time in Status Custom Fields

By creating a custom field, you can automatically track the time spent in different statuses, ensuring your team gets real-time insights into bottlenecks, workflow efficiency, and time allocation. Plus, with the ability to link a work calendar, you can ensure that only actual working hours are counted—providing precise and reliable data.

Important Things to Know

🚀 Automatic Refresh: The custom field updates every hour and reflects task movements between statuses within seconds.
📌 Work Calendar Integration: Only working hours are counted, ensuring accuracy.
🔒 Read-Only & Locked: Once created, the field is locked and cannot switch to a different work schedule. However, you can still adjust the linked work calendar settings.
🛠 Classic Projects Only: This feature is available exclusively for Jira Classic projects.
🗑 Auto-Deletion: If the custom field is disabled, it will be automatically deleted.

Boost Productivity with JQL Search Capabilities

Want to find tasks based on their time in a specific status? The Time in Status custom field is fully searchable using JQL. This means you can quickly filter tasks based on how long they’ve been stuck in a status, helping you identify blockers and optimize workflows.

JQL Query Examples:

🔍 Find tasks in a status for more than 1.5 days:
days:Custom_field_name > 1.5

🔍 Search for tasks that have spent over 3 hours in a status:
hours:Custom_field_name > 3

🔍 Identify tasks where Time in Status is not empty:
"Custom_field_name" IS NOT EMPTY

You can also use standard JQL operators (>, <, =, !=, etc.), and even fractional values (e.g., 2.3 hours) to fine-tune your searches.

Why Use Time in Status Custom Fields?

✅ Identify Bottlenecks: Instantly see which tasks are getting stuck and where improvements are needed.
✅ Improve Workload Management: Gain insights into team performance and task allocation.
✅ Enhance Reporting & Decision-Making: Use JQL queries to create powerful reports on time efficiency.
✅ Streamline Workflows: Automate time tracking without manual effort.

But this is not the only way to use this custom field. Let's reveal some more of its secrets below.

Automate Your Jira Workflow with Time in Status Custom Fields

Jira Automation, when combined with Time in Status custom fields, can transform the way you manage tasks. Instead of manually monitoring task durations, you can automate actions based on how long tasks have been in a particular status. Whether escalating overdue tasks, reassigning work, or adding priority labels, automation ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.

Let’s walk through how to set up an automation rule using Time in Status data in Jira.

Step 1: Create a Scheduled Automation Rule

Since Time in Status data updates hourly, we’ll use a Scheduled rule to check and take action on tasks that have been stuck for too long.

1️⃣ Go to Jira Automation and select Scheduled trigger.
2️⃣ Set the execution frequency (e.g., every 2 hours, daily, etc.).
3️⃣ Define your JQL query to filter relevant issues.

For example, if you want to find tasks that have been "In Progress" for more than 10 hours, use:

status = "In Progress" AND "hours:Custom_field_name" > 10

4️⃣ Click Validate query to ensure it’s correct.

Step 2: Optimize Automation with “Only Include Changed Issues”

Jira provides an option called “Only include issues that have changed since the last time this rule executed.”

🔹 Why use this?
This ensures that the rule only runs on tasks that have changed since the last execution, avoiding unnecessary actions and reducing system load.

✅ If enabled → The rule will only apply to recently updated tasks (e.g., a status change, a new comment, or an updated field).
❌ If disabled → The rule will apply to all matching tasks every time it runs.

💡 Pro Tip: If this rule is running for the first time, Jira will trigger it for all issues that meet the conditions!

Step 3: Define the Automation Actions

Now that you’ve filtered the right tasks, it’s time to automate actions based on their Time in Status data. Here’s what you can do:

🔄 Reassign overdue tasks

• Set the rule to automatically change the Assignee if a task has been in a status for too long.
• Example: "If a task has been 'In Review' for more than 48 hours, assign it to the Lead Engineer."

💬 Leave an automated comment

• Add a comment to notify team members about delayed tasks.
• Example: “@Team, this task has been in 'To Do' for more than 5 days. Please check its priority!”

🔺 Escalate urgent tasks

• Automatically increase the priority of tasks stuck in a status beyond a set limit.
• Example: If a bug has been in 'Blocked' for more than 24 hours, change its priority to ‘High’.

🚧 Label stalled tasks

• Add a "blocked" label to highlight tasks that have been stuck for too long.
• Example: If a task has been in 'Waiting for Approval' for more than 3 days, label it as "blocked".

➡ Auto-move issues

• Transition issues to a different status based on time.
• Example: If a task has been ‘In Progress’ for over 10 days, move it to ‘Escalation Needed’.

👥 Change reviewers or approvers

• Automatically update the list of reviewers/approvers for tasks that have been pending for too long.
• Example: If a task has been ‘Waiting for Review’ for more than 2 days, change the reviewer to a senior manager.

Configuring Gadgets for Jira Dashboards

• Jira gadget Filter results. After generating the above JQLs, you can display a list of tasks on the Jira dashboard by a specific time value in the status.
• Jira gadget Pie Chart. It allows you to visually see the ratio of tasks in a certain status of a certain duration with a breakdown by the Assignee. Also generated using JQL and saved as a Jira filter.

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So, take advantage of new use cases and revolutionize your workflows. And may you succeed 🙂.