If you're already building reusable templates in Jira (and if not, I wrote about that here 👉 How to create reusable Jira templates for cross-department workflows), you probably know the feeling:
You clone the issues.
Everything copies nicely.
You’re ready to start the work…
…and then you look at the date fields. 😬
Suddenly:
- due dates are in the past
- start dates don’t match your timeline
- milestones land on weekends
- your “new project” still has the schedule of the old one
And now you're stuck manually updating every single date – task by task – just to get back to a usable timeline.
We've all been there.
That’s why I started looking for a better way to handle dates in templates.
And this is where Clone Expert for Jira came in with something surprisingly simple but extremely useful:
👉 Automatic date adjustment directly in the cloning preview panel.
Let me walk you through it.
💡 The real problem: Jira clones dates 1:1
Jira’s native clone does a literal copy of your date fields:
- Due Date
- Start Date
- Custom date fields
- Milestones
This is fine if you only clone a single task.
But for templates used in onboarding, implementations, client deliveries, releases, migrations, it completely breaks the workflow.
These processes depend on offsets, not absolute dates.
Example:
Workshop → 2 WD after Kickoff
Environment setup → 10 WD after Workshop
Validation → 5 WD after Configuration
Go-live → fixed final date
In templates, this makes sense.
But when cloned into a real project?
These dates are now wrong — every time.
🔧 The solution: Auto-Adjustment in Clone Expert for Jira
Clone Expert for Jira adds a cloning preview panel where you can customize everything before the clone operation happens:
- summaries
- descriptions
- fields
- dynamic placeholders
- and now: date fields
This means:
✔ You see the entire structure
✔ You pick one reference date (start or end)
✔ The plugin recalculates the full timeline for you
✔ You can still override any individual date manually
No scripts, no post-functions, no after-clone cleanup steps.
It’s like having a mini scheduling engine built into the “Clone” button.
🧭 Auto-Adjustment comes in two flavors
Depending on your workflow, there are two ways to adjust dates — and two calculation logics.
1️⃣ Auto-adjust to earliest date (forward planning)
You pick the new start date.
The system shifts all dates forward while preserving your working-day or calendar-day offsets.
2️⃣ Auto-adjust to latest date (backward planning)
You pick the new deadline.
The system schedules everything backward, so the work finishes exactly on that date.
(This one is surprisingly useful for releases, audits, EOY work, end-of-contract tasks, etc.)
📅 Two calculation logics
Clone Expert supports both:
✔ Calendar days
Simple shift by the number of calendar days.
✔ Working days (skip weekends)
More realistic for teams that run Mon–Fri schedules.
Offsets retain their meaning:
- +4 WD stays +4 WD
- −9 WD stays −9 WD
weekends are skipped automatically
🧪 Example: Forward planning (new start date)
Imagine this template:
You want to start the real project on 15.04.2026.
Clone Expert recalculates:
All offsets preserved.
No manual editing needed.
⏱ Example: Backward planning (must finish by…)
This is the feature I wish had existed earlier.
Imagine your process must ** end on **22.07.2026:
(go-live, contract deadline, final delivery — you pick)
Template:
Clone Expert recalculates backward:
Start date found automatically.
Offsets preserved.
Zero manual work.
🖥 What I like most: It all happens in the preview table
This is honestly the best part.
You can:
- review the whole timeline
- override any date
- check if weekends are avoided
- fix edge cases
- tweak templates on the fly
And only then click Clone.
It feels like a lightweight project scheduler directly inside Jira’s cloning window.
🧩 How this fits into reusable Jira templates
If you’ve read my previous article about building cross-department Jira templates, you’ll probably see how Auto-Adjustment fits naturally into the process.
Templates handle:
- structure
- task descriptions
- dynamic placeholders
- naming conventions
- checklists
Auto-Adjustment handles:
- realistic dates
- correct sequencing
- deadline alignment
- business-ready schedules
Together, they form a real, repeatable workflow engine in Jira – without automation rules or scripting.
🤔 When should you use which mode?
Use Auto-adjust to earliest date when:
✔ you know the kickoff date
✔ your project naturally flows forward
✔ workflows like onboarding, implementation, migrations
Use Auto-adjust to latest date when:
✔ your process must end on a fixed deadline
✔ you’re working backward from delivery
✔ releases, audits, events, compliance, quarter-end
🎯 Final thoughts
Most Jira teams don’t struggle with what to clone – they struggle with when to do it.
Date Auto-Adjustment in Clone Expert for Jira removes the most frustrating manual step from template-based work: rebuilding timelines task by task.
If your workflows rely on templates (and if you’re reading this, they probably do), this tiny feature saves:
- time
- coordination effort
- errors
- back-and-forth corrections
And turns cloning into an actual workflow setup step, not a cleanup operation.
DOCUMENTATION| REQUEST DEMO | TRY IT
💬 What do you think?
How do you handle timelines when cloning Jira templates today?
Would backward planning help your use case?
Let me know – I’m curious what kinds of workflows you run in Jira!
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