Include subtasks not including...

[#1]

Jira's Time tracking functionality allows users to Log time on an issue which then translates to Time spent or work logged using the units of weeks, days, hours and minutes. This value is paired with the Original Estimate and the Remaining Estimate field that is dynamically calculated using a formula of {Original - Logged = Remaining}.

These estimates can be viewed and calculated directly on an issue or even indirectly if a hierarchy structure is being used, better known as Task (parent) and Subtask (child). Jira is capable of rolling up the Time tracking information from the child level up to its parent, providing a summed total. This is achieved by toggling the Include subtasks checkbox:

Include subtasks doesn't work for me

The sum of estimates is only available to Task → Subtask relationships, this is to say the parent issue must be a Standard Issue type and the child issue must be a Subtask Issue type of that parent.

Tasks that have a parent are considered Child issues due to the hierarchy structure available in Jira, but they are not the same as Subtasks in nature. This applies to relationships such as:

• Epic → Story
• Initiative → Epic

How do I sum up estimates from Child issues?

While you cannot use the Include subtasks function, it is definitely still possible to get your Child issues' estimates to roll up to its parent. This can be done by utilizing Automation for Jira.

The Community post Sum up logged hours using Automation provides various examples of how to do this since there are many different applications of this workaround. An example rule is also available on our Automation playground and can be used as a reference.

[Taranjeet Singh]

Thank you for sharing this article, @Belto ! From my experience, I can tell that this is a very common use case for many organizations using time tracking in Jira and it is great to see that "Automation for Jira" can provide a solution for this.