Documentation

Before you start

• You need a Jira Cloud site with Jira projects.
• A site admin installs the app. Jira administrators can change the site-wide settings.
• Anyone who can open the app sees only the issues they can browse in Jira, and can write dates only to issues they can edit.

Install the app

Install Estimate Scheduler from the Atlassian Marketplace. Atlassian asks you to approve what the app can do:

• Read Jira work: read issues, projects, fields, filters and link types, to build the schedule.
• Write Jira work: update the start and due dates of issues, only when someone confirms Write dates to Jira. The app never creates or deletes issues.
• Store app data: keep view settings, site settings and the write-back history in Atlassian-hosted app storage.
• Report personal data: tell Atlassian which account IDs the app stores, as Atlassian requires.

Installing changes nothing in Jira. On install, the app detects your start date, due date, story points and original estimate fields, so a schedule works the first time you open it.

Open the app

• Apps → Estimate Scheduler opens your views across projects.
• In a project, the Estimate Scheduler tab (under More when the project has many tabs) opens that project’s schedule. The first time anyone opens it, a shared view for the project is created.
• Jira settings → Apps → Estimate Scheduler settings opens the site settings, for Jira administrators.

The first time you open the app, a six-step tour shows the main steps. You can replay it from Help (the question mark).

Views

A view is a saved schedule: its issue source, calendar, zoom, columns and hidden items. Pick a view from the switcher at the top, or choose + New view. A new view starts from the site’s defaults.

Open View settings (the gear next to the switcher):

• Name: up to 80 characters.

• Visibility: Private (only you) or Shared (everyone who can open the app). Anyone can edit a shared view; only its owner, or a Jira administrator, can delete it.

• Issue source:

  • Projects: one or more projects.
  • Saved filter: one of your Jira filters.
  • JQL: any JQL with at least one condition. Choose Validate to check it; a query that only sorts (for example ORDER BY created DESC) is refused, because Jira won’t run it.

  Epics, stories and sub-tasks keep their hierarchy across projects.

• Schedule start date and Anchor mode: Start at the view start date schedules everything from that date. Respect start dates people set in Jira keeps a start date that someone set or changed in Jira as the issue’s earliest start. Start dates that Estimate Scheduler wrote itself can still move, earlier or later, when estimates or links change. (If someone sets a start date back to exactly the date the app last wrote, the app treats it as its own.)

• Working calendar: Hours per day, Workday start, Working days and Week start.

• Points-to-hours ratio: how many hours one story point means for your team.

Changes save within seconds and show Saved. If saving fails, your edits stay on screen and the app retries (Not saved – retrying). If someone else changed a shared view, you’re asked to reload.

Delete view removes the view’s settings only. Jira issues are untouched.

How dates are computed

For each issue the app takes:

1. The original estimate in hours, if there is one.
2. Otherwise story points × the points-to-hours ratio.
3. Otherwise nothing: the issue is marked No estimate and isn’t given a made-up duration.

An issue with story points in a view that has no points-to-hours ratio yet is marked Points: set a ratio, and a banner offers Set hours per point. A parent with children in the view (an epic, or a story with sub-tasks) is scheduled from its children; its own estimate isn’t used, and its estimate cell says From sub-tasks.

The work is laid over the view’s working hours and days, skipping the site’s non-working dates. Issues linked with the dependency link type (Blocks by default) run finish-to-start: an issue starts when the issues blocking it finish. Issues caught in a dependency cycle aren’t scheduled, and are marked.

Each person’s issues never overlap: in rank order, each one goes into the earliest free time that holds all of it, so a later, fixed start date doesn’t hold up the rest of that person’s work. Unassigned issues aren’t sequenced against each other.

Read the schedule

• Zoom: Hour, Day or Week, at the top of the timeline. Hour zoom shows short tasks sharing a day.
• Columns: key, summary, assignee, estimate, story points, start, end, Estimate % and Actual %.
• Estimate % is the share of the planned working time already elapsed. Actual % is time logged divided by the original estimate.
• No estimate, Dates out of date and Hidden filters show only those issues. The counter reads, for example, 9 shown, 1 hidden.
• Large issue sets load in pages; the counter shows how many have loaded, and you can scroll meanwhile.
• Open issue in Jira opens the issue.

Hide items

Use the row menu’s Hide from this view, or remove a project from the view’s source. Only the view changes; the issues stay in Jira as they are. Turn on the Hidden filter to see hidden issues, and choose Show in this view from a hidden issue’s row menu to bring it back.

Write dates to Jira

1. Choose Write dates to Jira.
2. The preview lists every start and due date that would change, with the current and new value, plus how many issues are unchanged and how many you can’t edit.
3. Untick anything you want to keep, then choose Confirm and write.

Only the start date and due date fields are written, and only for the issues you selected. Jira’s date fields hold days, not times, so hour detail stays in the app. Writes are made as you, so Jira’s own permissions and history apply. Issues that fail are listed with Jira’s reason, and nothing is retried automatically.

If an issue’s estimate, story points, links, start date or due date change after its dates were written, it’s marked Dates out of date, so you know to write again.

Site settings (Jira administrators)

Jira settings → Apps → Estimate Scheduler settings:

• Fields: the detected Start date, Due date, Story points and Original estimate fields. Override any of them, or choose Re-detect fields.
• Dependencies → Link type: the link type that runs finish-to-start. The outward link is the predecessor. Blocks by default.
• Non-working dates: holidays for every view.
• Defaults for new views: the working calendar new views start with, such as hours per day, working days and week start.

Nothing here has to be set before your team can use the app.

License

With an inactive license, views stay readable but editing and Write dates to Jira pause, and a banner asks a site admin to renew. Help shows the license status.

What it doesn’t do

This version doesn’t show resource workload or earned value, doesn’t level resources, doesn’t write hours or times to Jira, and never creates or deletes issues.

FAQ

How do story points become dates? You set how many hours one point means for your team. The app uses the original estimate in hours when there is one, otherwise points × your ratio, then lays the work over your working hours.

Why does an issue say “No estimate”? It has neither an original estimate nor story points, so the app doesn’t guess. Add an estimate in Jira and it’s scheduled automatically. An issue with story points but no ratio in the view says Points: set a ratio instead.

Why is a parent’s own estimate not used? A parent with children in the view is scheduled from its children, so its dates span theirs. Put the work’s estimate on the children.

Will the app keep the start dates it wrote? Not when Respect start dates people set in Jira is on: a start date counts as fixed only if a person set or changed it. If an issue’s Jira start date is the one Estimate Scheduler last wrote (in any view), the issue can move earlier or later when estimates or links change.

Will removing a project from my view delete its issues? No. Hiding and removing only change the view. The app has no way to delete issues.

Does installing the app change my issues? No. Nothing is written on install or when you open a view. Jira changes only when you confirm a write-back.

Do I have to map date fields before I can start? No. Fields are detected automatically and a view is ready on first open. Admins can override the detection later.

Do I need another app installed? No. The app works on its own with your Jira data.

Why aren’t hour-level times saved in Jira? Jira’s start and due date fields hold dates, not times. Hour detail is shown in the app; write-back saves the dates.

Does it show resource workload or earned value? No. It computes dates from estimates.

What happens if our license lapses? Your views stay readable, but editing and write-back pause until a site admin renews.

What data does the app store? View settings, site settings, Atlassian account IDs and a history of date write-backs, all in Atlassian’s Forge storage. Issue text is never stored and no data leaves Atlassian. The privacy policy has the details.

Troubleshooting

• “You can’t browse these projects.” You don’t have Browse permission for a project in the view. Ask a Jira admin, or remove the project from the view.
• The JQL won’t save. Fix the JQL first: the source is saved only once it validates. Add a condition such as project = KEY if it only sorts.
• Many issues show “No estimate”. Check that the Story points and Original estimate fields in site settings are the ones your team uses. Issues that show Points: set a ratio need a Points-to-hours ratio in the view settings.
• Site settings say a field isn’t found. Fields added to Jira later are picked up within a day; a Jira administrator can choose Re-detect fields to do it now.
• Dependencies don’t move dates. Check the Link type in site settings. Only that link type runs finish-to-start.
• An issue isn’t scheduled and says it’s in a dependency cycle. Its blocking links loop back to it. Remove one of the links in Jira.
• “No Edit Issues permission” in the write-back preview. You can’t edit those issues; they’re skipped. Someone with permission can write them.
• “Jira rate limit reached” or “Jira didn’t respond.” Wait a moment and write the failed issues again.
• Read-only mode. The license is inactive. Ask a site admin to renew it.
• Something else. See Support.