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Show custom fields on Jira board cards

By Jens Schumacher, former Head of Product for Jira

A Jira card shows you the summary, type, priority, and assignee: everything else hides behind the work item detail view. If you want story points, a due date, or a custom field visible at a glance, you have to add it to the card layout in board settings. Company-managed boards let you add up to three extra fields; team-managed boards are more limited still. Here's how to do it in each, including the gotchas around custom-field scope.

Choose your Jira board type

Company-managed Jira Team-managed Jira

Company-managed board

Company-managed boards have the better-developed card layout: you can add up to three extra fields, and on Scrum boards you can set them differently for the backlog and active sprint. You'll need admin or board-admin permission.

  1. Open Board settings → Layout → Card layout

    From your board, select more (•••) → Board settings, expand Layout, then choose Card layout. Requires Jira admin, space admin, or board admin.

  2. Add up to three fields

    Select the fields to display, for example Story points, Due date, and a custom field. On Scrum boards, the backlog and active-sprint card layouts are set separately. You can also enable Days in column to flag slow-moving work.

  3. Save

    The fields now appear on every card on the board, stacked under the summary.

Show more than three fields

Put all the fields you need on your cards.

Learn how

Team-managed board

Team-managed card customization is more limited. Rather than freely adding custom fields, you toggle the visibility of a fixed set: and Atlassian has said full parity with company-managed card layouts isn't on the roadmap.

  1. Open Board settings

    From your board, select more (•••) → Board settings, then the card/view settings. Board-admin or space-admin access is required.

  2. Toggle the available fields

    You can switch on things like status, epic, linked work items, work item type, work item key, priority, and assignee. The set is fixed: you generally can't add arbitrary custom fields to team-managed cards the way you can in company-managed spaces.

  3. Save

    The chosen fields appear on the cards for everyone on the board.

Show the fields Jira leaves out

Put all the fields you need on your cards.

Learn how

Good to know

Before you customize Jira cards:

  • Three extra fields, max in native Jira. Beyond summary, type, priority, and assignee (which always show), company-managed gives you three additional configurable fields. Team-managed offers only a fixed set of toggleable fields.
  • Admin-only. Editing card layout needs Jira, space, or board admin permission.
  • Custom-field scope bites. Team-managed space fields are space-scoped and won't appear as card-layout options on cross-space boards unless globally scoped.
  • Team-managed parity isn't coming. Atlassian has stated full card-layout parity with company-managed isn't planned.
  • Layout is per-board, shared. Whatever fields an admin adds show for everyone on that board; there's no per-user card layout.
  • Scrum boards split layouts. Backlog and active-sprint card layouts are configured separately, which is easy to forget.

Every field, right on the card

No three-field cap, no admin ticket, no scope headaches. Toggle any field onto your cards and see it instantly. Free to try with your Jira.

Try BetterBoard free

FAQ

How do I add a custom field to Jira cards?
In a company-managed space, open Board settings → Layout → Card layout and add the field (up to three extra fields). You need Jira, space, or board admin permission. Team-managed spaces only let you toggle a fixed set of fields, not arbitrary custom fields.
Why can't I add more than three fields to a Jira card?
Three additional fields is a hard limit in native Jira card layouts. Along with the summary, type, priority, and assignee that always appear, you can display three more fields and no others.
Why isn't my custom field showing as an option in card layout?
The usual cause is field scope. Custom fields created in a team-managed space are scoped to that space. On a board built from a filter that spans multiple spaces, those fields won't appear unless they're configured as globally scoped custom fields.
Can I show different fields on backlog cards versus sprint cards?
Yes, on company-managed Scrum boards. The card layout for the backlog and the active sprint are configured separately, so you can show different fields in each.
Do I need to be an admin to change card fields?
Yes. Editing the card layout requires Jira admin, space admin, or board admin permission. Regular board users can't change which fields appear on cards.
How does BetterBoard handle card fields differently?
BetterBoard lets any user toggle any field onto cards with a live preview: no three-field limit and no admin gate. It reads your Jira fields directly, so even custom fields from different spaces appear as options on a multi-space board.