Proper configuration of date fields (start date / due date) on a project calendar

In Jira, the individuals issues can have multiple “date fields”. For example:

• actual start
• actual end
• planned start
• planned end
• Satisfaction date
• Resolution date
• Duedate
• Start date
• ..and many more…

What’s more, in Jira you can create your own custom field (date/datetime) that fit your needs in a better way than the default fields.

This is why there can be complications when placing issues on the calendar. For example the issues might not show up at all, might show up on different days etc…

This is why it is absolutely crucial to configure the calendar to use the particular date field, that you need.

Issue Calendar for Jira uses a field “duedate” out of the box – which is proper configuration for most use cases. However, when your company uses a custom date field, further calendar configuration is required.

It is very simple and this tutorial will guide you through it.

Tutorial

1. Open up a project

As the very first step, open up your project in Jira. Then, find “Issue calendar” section within the left sidebar and open it.

2. Find “configuration button”

As the next step, locate the “configuration button” that will allow for configuration of the particular project. The button is located at the top-right part of the screen. Once you find the button click it to open up configuration window.

3. Configure date fields

Eventually, the very last step is to actually configure which date field is going to be used for which issue type. For each issue type simply pick the desired date field.

Once you’re done, click “Save” to apply changes.

Final thoughts

In this tutorial you’ve learnt how to properly configure date fields for the particular project calendar.

It is very important to note, that if you use customized date fields for majority of your project, you are required to do the configuration for each projects.

Also, if you are using iCal calendar sharing, you need to configure the date fields as well – to make sure that the issues are displayed on proper days.