SLA custom field
- Technical Communications
- Derya Özdemir
- Marie Rosema
This page is about Time to SLA for Jira Cloud.
You can view the target date of your SLA on the SLA Panel, but you might also want to display this information in a custom field for better visibility. To do this, you can assign a Date Time Picker custom field (which you must create beforehand) as the SLA target date.
This will display the target date in the Details > More Fields category, like this:
This page explains how to set a custom field as the SLA Target Date custom field.
Step 1: Create the custom field
You can use an existing custom field as an SLA target date, but as a best practice, we recommend creating a Date Time Picker type custom field specifically for this purpose.
Follow this guide to create a Date Time Picker type custom field.
We don't recommend using a target date for more than one SLA because the field may display inaccurate data as a result.
If you have two different SLAs that will appear on the same issue, you shouldn't use a single custom field for both. Create two separate custom fields to avoid any mishaps.
Step 2: Set the custom field as the SLA target date custom field
Go to SLAs in Time to SLA.
Click the settings button in the row of the SLA you want to update and select Edit.
Scroll down to the SLA Custom Field section and tick the Update date field in issue checkbox.
Select the custom field you want to set as the SLA target date custom field.
Click Save.
That’s it! Now, all you need to do is recalculate your SLA data so that you can see the SLA target date custom field on your existing issues. If you don't know how, read this article to find out.
The SLA target date custom field will be added automatically for issues updated after this configuration.
Not seeing the custom field on your issue? You may not have added the custom field to the correct screens. Please ensure that you have added the custom field that you've set as the SLA Target Date Custom Field to the appropriate screens.
The SLA Target Date custom field reflects the current SLA deadline. If the SLA is paused after it has already breached, the deadline will remain unchanged, and the custom field will not update further.
Pauses only affect the target date before the breach. After a breach occurs, the SLA remains marked as breached, and the target date is locked.
This is by design to ensure accurate and auditable SLA tracking.
Target date refresh interval
You can enter a refresh interval (for example, 30 minutes) to determine how often you'd like the SLA Target Date custom field to update the target date on an SLA.
When an SLA is paused before a breach, the Target Date custom field stores information about how long it has been paused. This information is then used to recalculate the SLA target date, which is updated regularly during the pause. This gives you a more accurate estimate of how long it will take to complete a task.
If the SLA is already breached when the pause starts, the target date will no longer be recalculated. The SLA remains marked as breached, and the target date stays fixed.
If the target date does not change, Time to SLA will not update this value regardless of the Target Date Refresh Interval.
For example, let's imagine an SLA with a goal of 2 hours. As it continues to count, the target date remains unchanged. When the SLA stops (due to a pause before breach), the target date is pushed forward every minute. This is where the value you picked comes into play: this information is updated as often as the Target Date Refresh Interval value.
This information also appears in the issue history section.
To set the target date refresh interval, follow these steps:
Open Time to SLA and click Settings.
Click Advanced from the sidebar.
Adjust the Target Date Refresh Interval (In Minutes) according to how often you want the information on your custom field to be updated. (Minimum: 2m, Maximum: 1,440m.)
Click Save.
If your history is flooded with update notifications, you can try setting a higher target date refresh interval number to solve that problem.