Using Jira for Sales and CRM: A Practical Guide

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If you’ve ever tried managing deals, contacts, or accounts in Jira, you’re not alone. Most teams try it at some point. Sometimes, because there’s no CRM in place. Sometimes, because Jira is already the center of everything else.

It’s a fair idea. Jira already handles your delivery, support, and internal processes. So why not sales?

The truth is, Jira can take you pretty far if you understand how to work with what it offers.

This isn’t a “why Jira isn’t a CRM” post. It’s a guide for teams that actually want to do this and want to do it well.

Why Use Jira for CRM-Style Work?

Jira wasn’t originally designed for sales, yet many teams are adapting it for CRM-style work, as it already connects the teams involved in the customer lifecycle, including delivery, support, onboarding, and more. When those teams already operate in Jira, tracking deals there can simplify coordination and reduce overhead.

Here’s why this approach is gaining traction.

Sales is increasingly cross-functional

Closing a deal often requires input from multiple departments. Pre-sales calls might involve technical experts. Proposals go through legal and finance. Handoffs require coordination with onboarding and customer success. These touchpoints span far beyond the sales team.

Most of those stakeholders are already in Jira. When sales activities are also tracked there, collaboration happens in the same space, without exporting context or translating requests across systems.

You don’t have to start from scratch

Jira offers prebuilt templates like “Sales Pipeline” or “Lead Tracking” that provide a quick foundation. Teams can configure issue types, fields, workflows, and dashboards to reflect their process. It’s not a one-click CRM, but it’s enough to build something that fits your way of working, especially for teams that value flexibility over rigidity.

This makes it easier for smaller or fast-moving teams to manage opportunities and accounts without committing to a full CRM rollout.

Visibility and shared workflows

When customer and deal data live outside Jira, other teams lose access. Support agents don’t know who the customer is. Developers don’t see what was agreed during the sales process. Customer success lacks context for renewals or escalations.

Keeping this information in Jira means it’s accessible in the same place where work is tracked. Sales reps can be tagged directly on issues. Everyone involved can view the full customer history without toggling between platforms or asking for updates. The information lives where the action takes place.

One source of truth

With a separate CRM, organizations often need to sync data across systems. That introduces complexity: mapping fields, resolving conflicts, and managing sync tools. Even with robust connectors, things fall out of alignment.

When sales activity lives in Jira, there’s no second source of data to maintain. Deals, contacts, companies, and projects can be linked directly. Everyone operates with the same data, reducing duplication and improving accuracy.

Reporting that covers more than sales

Traditional CRMs focus on revenue tracking and pipeline stages. But they typically don’t cover what happens after the deal closes.

By managing sales activities within Jira, teams can analyze customer acquisition and retention in the context of actual execution. This includes visibility into cross-functional involvement, time investment, and post-sale workload, data that is often siloed or entirely missing from CRM reports.

For example, engineering involvement in pre-sales activities, such as technical scoping or custom demos, can be measured through linked issues and time tracking. Similarly, onboarding tasks, implementation work, and support tickets handled by delivery and customer success teams contribute to the full picture of what it takes to serve a specific customer or segment.

This approach enables reporting on Customer Acquisition Cost that reflects not only sales effort, but the true internal cost across departments. It also supports deeper insights into operational efficiency, resource allocation, and the long-term value of different deal types.

The real cost of a full CRM

Standalone CRMs come with more than just license fees. They require onboarding, configuration, ongoing integration work, and long-term maintenance. Many teams adopt them, hoping for efficiency, but end up only using a small subset of features.

In Jira, teams can manage their pipeline and customer data using tools they already understand. It’s a lighter lift and easier to adjust as processes change.

Fewer tools, more flow

When teams work across multiple systems, even simple updates take longer. Switching tools breaks focus. Syncing data requires oversight. Context gets lost between platforms.

Working entirely in Jira means customer data, team collaboration, and execution tasks stay in one place. Sales don’t need to summarize everything for delivery. Support can see the full timeline without asking for access. The result is a smoother handoff and fewer disconnects between departments.

Built-in governance

Many companies already use Jira for project management, with permission schemes, audit trails, and compliance rules in place. That foundation carries over when sales activity is added to the system.

There’s no need to reinvent approval flows or set up duplicate user roles. Teams can apply existing rules and automations to manage access, monitor changes, and keep sensitive data secure.

What Atlassian Offers Out of the Box for Sales Teams

Atlassian includes two Jira Work Management templates designed for sales: Sales Pipeline and Lead Tracking. They work better than most people expect.

Sales Pipeline Template

• Workflow: New → Contact Sent → Follow-Up → Negotiation → Closed Won/Lost
• Kanban board and List view
• Built-in Form for deal/opportunity creation
• Fields like Company size, Email, Phone Number, Close Date, Due Date
• Summary dashboard includes:
  • Time-based insights: created, updated, completed (Won/Lost), due soon
  • Status overview (how many deals are in each stage)
  • Recent activity across the project
  • Priority breakdown to highlight urgent deals
  • Team workload by assignee
  • Related project metrics if linked to shared work

The Sales Pipeline template is ideal for small to midsize teams looking for a ready-to-use way to track deals. It comes fully set up with key statuses and fields, boards, forms, and a dashboard - no configuration needed. It’s a solid starting point that brings structure and visibility from day one, with the flexibility to grow as your process evolves.

Lead Tracking Template

While the Sales Pipeline template manages active deals, the Lead Tracking template is built for earlier-stage work — capturing, qualifying, and assigning leads before they enter the pipeline.

• Workflow: Opportunity → Contacted → In Negotiation → Lost/Won
• Kanban board and List view
• Built-in Form for lead creation
• Fields like Opportunity Value, Due Date, Assignee, Priority
• Shares the same summary dashboard structure as the Sales Pipeline template, capturing key activity and workload metrics out of the box.

This template is a great fit for SDRs or marketing teams managing inbound interest or early outreach. It brings immediate structure with no setup required and helps teams move away from spreadsheets without overcomplicating their process.

If you’re moving from spreadsheets or Trello, this setup alone gives you real structure with very little configuration.

A Note on Sales Support: The Sales Service Management Template

While the Sales Pipeline and Lead Tracking templates help you manage deals and leads directly, Atlassian also offers a third option designed specifically for internal sales support work - the Sales Service Management template.

This one isn’t part of Jira Work Management. It’s built on Jira Service Management and is meant for teams like deal desks, presales, or sales operations, anyone responsible for supporting the sales process behind the scenes.

It gives you a centralized place to handle requests like pricing reviews, quote support, or legal approvals. You get structured request types, built-in forms, queues, SLAs, and permissions, all designed to help internal teams respond quickly and securely.

This template is especially useful if your sales cycle involves cross-functional input or you’re scaling a dedicated support layer for account executives. While it doesn’t manage leads or opportunities directly, it fills a critical role in keeping deals moving forward.

How to Get the Most Out of Jira Sales Templates

Jira’s sales templates give you a solid starting point, but a few strategic adjustments can make them feel tailored to your team, without introducing unnecessary complexity.

Refine the workflow to match real stages
Don’t stick to the default statuses if they don’t fit. Insert steps like “Demo Scheduled” or “Contract Sent” where they naturally occur. The goal is clarity, so every status should reflect meaningful progress.

Add only the fields that matter
Extra fields should support your sales process, not just add clutter. Consider adding fields like Forecast Probability, Deal Value, Product, or Lead Source, but only if they’ll be used in reports or decisions.

Streamline the intake form
Adapt the form to reflect what your team actually collects. Keep it simple and fast to fill out, especially for reps logging new leads during a call or meeting.

Use List View for reviews
List View makes it easier to scan, filter, and edit multiple deals at once. It’s much faster than opening each issue individually and often replaces the need for separate dashboards.

Create focused filters
Saved filters like “Deals Closing This Month” or “Needs Attention” help team members zero in on what matters most, without extra tooling.

Automate routine steps
Set up lightweight automations to reduce manual work. Things like auto-assigning leads or deals, nudging deals that sit too long, or updating statuses when forms are submitted. You can also push notifications into Slack or Teams to keep communication flowing without switching tools.

Going Deeper: Building CRM Structure in Jira

When or if templates aren’t enough, you can build a more advanced CRM-style setup in Jira using custom issue types.

Map CRM Concepts to Jira

CRM Concept	Jira Issue Type	Notes
Deal	Deal	Tracks value, stage, ownership
Contact	Contact	Stores name, email, role, and links to deals and company (for B2B is a must)
Company	Company	Optional, but useful for B2B structure
Activity	Activity or Subtask	Used to log calls, emails, meetings

Use issue links to define relationships between records. Some Atlassian Marketplace apps can improve visibility, but even native views are usable with a consistent structure.

Field Strategy

Start with just enough.

Deals:

• Stage
• Source
• Deal Value
• Expected Close Date
• Assigned Rep
• Linked Contact
  
  

Contacts:

• Email
• Phone
• Role
• Company
• Region
  
  

Companies:

• Industry
• Company Size
• Active Contracts
• Assigned CSM
  
  

Use field contexts to keep these scoped to their relevant issue types. Don’t overload your entire Jira instance.

Reporting: What Works and What Doesn’t

Jira can give you solid pipeline visibility without custom plugins.

What you can track with dashboards:

• Deals by stage (Pie Chart)
• Value per rep (Two-Dimensional Filter Stats)
• Overdue opportunities (Filter Results + date filters)
• Time in status (Average Age Gadget)

What’s harder to track without additional tools:

• Revenue forecasts
• Conversion rates
• Pipeline trend over time
• Contact or account-level rollups
  
  

You can get some of this with BI tools or advanced Marketplace gadgets, but native reporting works well as long as your fields and filters are clean.

Automating the Sales Process in Jira

Native automation covers a lot of ground. Here are a few examples:

• Remind the owner if a deal has no updates in 7 days
• Create onboarding tasks when a deal is marked Closed Won
• Generate follow-up reminders based on deal stage or priority
  
  

The key is to automate real workflows, not just notifications. Automate what slows you down or gets forgotten.

When Jira’s Flexibility Starts Asking for Structure

No unified view of accounts or contacts
You can mimic it with issue types and links, but there’s no native way to manage customer records, ownership, or relationships across deals.

Customer context is scattered
Details live in different issues, projects, or custom fields. Support, sales, and product each build their own version of the truth.

Ownership gets fuzzy
You can assign issues, but not accounts. It’s hard to track who’s responsible for a customer across teams.

Reporting becomes workarounds
Dashboards only go so far. Metrics like pipeline by segment or customer acquisition cost require complex setups or external BI tools.

Scaling adds friction
As volume grows, so does the need for structure: clean fields, clear roles, and data integrity. Jira isn’t built to enforce that at a CRM level.

At some point, it’s no longer about bending Jira further. It’s about bringing a purpose-built CRM structure into the place where work already happens.

What We’re Building to Support the Next Stage Inside Jira

For teams that want to stay in Jira but need more structure, we’re working on something new.

Mria CRM is a Forge-based app designed to bring real CRM logic into Jira without adding complexity or requiring integration. Mria CRM builds on everything teams like about Jira, and fills the gaps where CRM work starts to demand more.

Mria CRM: Deal card view with key sales details, linked contacts and company, activity timeline, and Jira-style layout

What makes it different:

• Dedicated Leads – not just early-stage issues, but a real lead object with lifecycle, ownership, and conversion tracking
  
  
• CRM-native Deals – structured records with consistent fields, forecasting, and workflows that support scale and reporting
  
  
• Structured records for Contacts and Companies – not just issue types with links, but dedicated views and relationship history
  
  
• Activity tracking – every meeting, call, note, and email logged directly in the specific record, with purpose-built activity types
  
  
• Timeline and changelog – full history of updates and interactions, visible in context for Leads and Deals records
  
  
• Products module – connect pipeline data to actual offerings, with pricing, SKUs, categories, and variants
  
  
• Smart linking to Jira issues and JSM tickets – connect any CRM record to real work already tracked in Jira
  
  
• Robust reporting – based on structured data, not filters or dashboard hacks
  
  
• Granular permissions – control visibility by role, user, or team, and protect sensitive records
  
  
• Jira-native UI – built to feel like Jira, with familiar views, filters, and behavior
  
  
• No-code configuration – so sales and operations teams can own and adapt the system without extra admin support

Mria CRM is currently in development at Mria Labs Inc., a new Atlassian Marketplace Partner focused on extending Jira with native, purpose-built solutions. As our flagship product, Mria CRM is now in its final development phase, with a planned launch in Fall 2025. You can see the first visual preview here.

If your team has explored using Jira for CRM-style work, we’re interested in hearing your perspective. What has worked well? Where have you encountered limitations? And what would you expect from a CRM designed to work entirely within Jira?

We welcome your comments, feedback, and shared experiences. For more information, visit mriacrm.com.