Looking to build a very specific charts

[Amanda Sugatan]

Hi There! I'm looking to build a dashboard compiled of charts for different fields. The goal os this chart is to look at the date the field was update to specific fields, compare them to a date within the JIRA, and bucket the timing into categories like [late] [on-time] [ignored] depending on how near or far the field update was made from the date field. Is this possible? Thanks!! 

[Dwight Holman]

I agree with Trudy and Carlos - Jira does not have any built-in dashboard chart that can do this.

For some time we have use the Jira Custom Charts app to get better and more powerful graphs in Jira Dashboards. This app offers JQL to define graph segments - so you can choose a pie chart and use JQL to define what is included in each segment.

Their documentation briefly describes how to do something like what you describe.

[Amanda Sugatan]

Thanks Dwight! I believe we currently use custom fields now but see that issue history isn't supported - Would you know if it's possible to create categories for custom fields based on the date updated to a specific field?

[Carlos Garcia Navarro]

Hi @Amanda Sugatan ,

That’s a really interesting use case! While Jira doesn’t provide this report out of the box, I’m wondering if you could export the data to a spreadsheet (e.g., Excel) and then use formulas to calculate the numbers and create a chart similar to your example.

[Amanda Sugatan]

Thanks Carlos! Unfortunately, we are exporting the data now into a spreadsheet and doing the calculations manually, and thennnn creating the chart in powerpoint. Thanks again! 

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

@Amanda Sugatan You could totally remove the manual work from your process and stay with Excel (if it is already working). 

How?

The Better Excel Exporter app uses Excel files as templates. You place special placeholders, which will be replaced with the issue field values while creating the export file. You can even use formulas or define charts in the template, which will be filled with real data in the exported file! You have to create the template once, then fill it with real data with a few clicks any time.

(Discl. it is a paid and supported app developed by our team.)

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Amanda Sugatan 

Jira does not natively offer a report like that. It might be possible to create by combining a variety of custom solutions, like a custom field and Automation Rules to do the comparison and set the field.

Are you open to consider a third party app to fulfill your need?

[Amanda Sugatan]

Thanks Trudy! Question, could you help give an example of we how could we use custom fields and automation rules to do the comparison?

[Trudy Claspill]

It would not be an elegant solution. And I'm not sure I have fully grasped your scenario.

Could you possible walk through a specific example of how the report would be impacted by the changing of a field on a given date and the passage of time?

Also, how many fields of interest are there, where you would want to be able to generate these types of reports?

One solution would be to create custom fields that you could set to "on time", "late x days" values. For simplicity lets call those "timeliness" fields.

You could use Automation rules to detect changes to the fields of interest, execute the comparison of the current date of change to the specified comparison date, and set the associated "timeliness" field. Then build your chart based on the "timeliness" field. The "timeliness field would have to be a selection list type of field.

But if the scenario is one where the "timeliness" value would change as time passes and the last "date of change" remained unchanged, then the above is not quite the right solution.

Instead you might need date fields that correspond to the fields of interest. You would use Automation Rules to detect when the fields change and set their corresponding "date of change" field. Then use separate scheduled rules to review those "date of change" fields compared to your Comparison Date, and set the "timeliness" fields accordingly.

If you didn't want to add "date of change" fields then the solution would need to rely on the REST API to get change log information for each issue, find the change date information for the fields of interest, and do additional work to generate the "timeliness" value.

I suspect that there are 3rd party apps that would make this much easier, but I have not worked with many of the charting and reporting apps, so I don't have a specific recommendation on one that would suit your needs.

[Olha Yevdokymova_SaaSJet]

Hi @Amanda Sugatan  👋

That’s a very specific and powerful reporting use case — and it may go beyond what native Jira dashboards support out of the box.

You might want to try using the new way of customizing Jira - > the Forge Apps Generator developed by my team. It allows you to describe exactly what you want (just type as a text), and it will generate a custom dashboard gadget or app for you — no coding needed. The app will be deployed to your instance and your team may use it.

For your case, you could say something like:

“Build a chart that categorizes issues as on-time, late, or ignored based on when a field was updated compared to another date field.”

The output would be a Jira-native gadget that visualizes your data just how you need it. It might be exactly what you’re looking for — or at least a faster way to test your idea.

Let me know if you want help crafting the prompt!