What are Jira custom fields?

Every team tracks details that work items may not capture out of the box — a campaign budget, a customer tier, a risk score. Jira fields let you add exactly those details to your work items so you can filter, sort, calculate, and report on the information your team actually manages.

The field type you choose decides what’s possible.

What is a Jira field?

A Jira field is a single piece of information attached to a work item, like assignee, due date, priority, or status. Every work item is really a collection of fields, and those fields are what let your team sort, filter, report on, and act on work.

Jira ships with fields that cover the basics. When your team needs to track something those defaults miss, you add a custom field. Fields are the difference between a work item that just holds a title and one that carries the budget, the risk level, and the deadline your team actually manages against.

System fields and custom fields

Jira fields fall into two groups, and knowing the difference saves you from recreating something Jira already gives you.

System fields come with every Jira work item. Summary, assignee, reporter, priority, status, and due date are all system fields. You decide where they appear and how prominent they are, but you do not create or delete them.

Custom fields are the ones you add to capture what your team tracks that the defaults miss. A marketing team adds a "Campaign budget" field. A support team adds a "Customer tier" field. An engineering team adds a "Root cause" field. You control the type, the name, and which spaces and work types use it.

A new Jira work item with standard fields ready to be completed.

Common system fields you will see on most work items include:

• Summary, the short title of the work item.

• Assignee, the person responsible for the work.

• Reporter, the person who raised it.

• Priority, how urgent the work is.

• Status, where the work sits in your workflow.

• Due date, when the work is expected to be done.

Most of the tailoring you do in Jira happens through custom fields. They are how a work item becomes a record that fits how your team actually works, whether that means a severity rating, a target environment, or a T-shirt size on every story.

What are the main Jira custom field types?

Jira groups its custom field types by the kind of data they capture. Start with what you're capturing, then match it to a type.

To point a field at a Jira group rather than a single person, use a Group picker.

Two things worth a second's thought: store anything you'll do math on as a number, not text, and use a choice field over free text whenever you'll filter or group on the value. Formula fields get their own section below.

How do I choose the right field type?

Start with what you'll do with the value, not what it looks like. Quick rule: if you'll filter or group on it, make it a choice field. If you'll calculate on it, make it a number. If it's a deadline, make it a date. If it's derived from other fields, make it a formula.

The cost of the wrong type shows up later, when a report won't group cleanly or a number won't add up. A minute spent choosing the type saves an afternoon of cleanup.

What is a Jira formula field?

A formula field is a custom field that calculates its own value in real time by referencing other fields on the same work item.

A formula field removes the need to export data into a spreadsheet just to do business math. It keeps the calculation where the work lives, so the number stays current when its inputs change.

A few things make formula fields useful in practice:

• They reference other fields. A formula reads values from number, date, text, and choice fields on the same work item.

• They return one of four output types. Results are a number, text, date, or duration, and number results can show as currency, a percentage, or a decimal.

• They update on their own. When a referenced field changes, the result recalculates. Updates can be asynchronous, so a new value may take a short time to appear.

• They work everywhere your Jira data goes. Results are searchable and sortable in JQL, usable in dashboard gadgets, and capable of triggering automation rules in both team-managed and company-managed spaces.

Formula fields calculate within a single work item. They don't roll values up across related work items, so to total values across many work items, aggregate the results in a Jira dashboard. If you are not sure how to write a formula, you can describe the calculation in plain language and let Rovo draft it.

A formula field being used to track difference between the original shipping date and actual shipping date.

Frequently asked questions

What is a field in Jira?

A field is a single piece of information on a work item, like assignee, due date, or priority. Every work item is a set of fields, and fields are what you filter, sort, and report on.

What is the difference between a system field and a custom field?

System fields ship with every Jira work item, like summary and status, and cannot be deleted. Custom fields are ones you add to track information specific to your team.

What are the custom field types in Jira?

Jira offers text, number, date, and choice fields, plus people and team fields and formula fields. The type you pick decides whether you can filter, calculate, or sort on the value.

How do I choose the right custom field type?

Start with what you will do with the value. Use choice fields to filter, number fields to calculate, date fields for deadlines, and a formula field when the value is derived from others.

What is a formula field in Jira?

A formula field is a custom field that calculates its value in real time from other fields on the same work item. It updates automatically when those fields change.

Can formula fields roll up values across work items?

Not yet. Formula fields calculate within a single work item. To total values across many work items, aggregate the results in a Jira dashboard.