Explain all the various "Date" fields in JIRA

[Andrew Blake]

I'm working on a project that requires filtering issues by date, but JIRA has so many possible date fields (Created, Sprint Start Date, and Change Date, just to name a few) that it's really hard to know what is what. Here is a list of the date fields that are still frustratingly unfamiliar. Can somebody please explain what each of them mean so that I know which one to use?

Actual Start/End date

Baseline start/end date

Change completion date

Change start/end date

Date Change

Effective Date

Start Date/End Date

Issue Date

Satisfaction Date

Scan Date

Term Date

Updated

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Thank you so much!

[Steven F Behnke · Accepted solution]

• Actual Start/End date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Baseline start/end date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Change completion date  <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Change start/end date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Date Change <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Effective Date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Start Date/End Date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Issue Date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Satisfaction Date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Scan Date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Term Date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin
• Updated <- Last time any field was updated on the issue

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Good answer - concise and accurate.  I wanted to add the example fields in the main question too:

• Created <- date the issue was added to Jira
• Sprint Start Date <- date the sprint was, or will be, started
• Change Date <- Custom Field, ask your Jira admin

[Deleted user]

I know this is an old thread, so I'm hoping something has changed.

Is it possible to have the sprint start and end date columns in the structure automatically calculated based on when the 'Start Sprint' button was clicked plus the default sprint duration?

If I have 10 stories in a new sprint, I don't want to have to update each story individually or update the dates if the story changes sprints. 

[M B]

Using Jira Automation, you can automate the calculation for every Story/Tasks in a new Sprint when it starts.

[Christy J Tucker]

Any suggestions on Follow up Date.  Alot of tickets are kind of on hold until a specific time and a follow up date would be extremely useful.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Create a custom field for it.  Atlassian have never seen a need to, but if you need one, it's exactly what custom fields are for.

[Alfredo Negrete]

Where is the Sprint Completion date stored?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

On the sprint.

[Alfredo Negrete]

Yes, the sprint completion date.  Seems it doesn't exist on the front end at all to be queried against.  You can see it on the backend on the sprint table: 

AO_xxxxxx_SPRINT.  Had a user ask if it could be updated and from what I'm reading it can't.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That's correct, the sprint completion date is noted and stored when you end the sprint.  There is no reason to change it, as all that will do is destroy your historic reporting.

[Tad Foster]

Additionally, If you have, BigPicture by Softwareplant, it will create and/or leverage both the "Start date" and "End date" custom fields:

https://wiki.softwareplant.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=228426612

[Andrew Blake]

Thanks both! I didn't realize these were mostly custom fields. I'll check with my admin.

[Steven F Behnke]

Thanks nic