Most product teams operate across more than one planning rhythm at the same time - quarterly reviews for leadership, program increments for engineering, release windows for go-to-market, and delivery phases for external stakeholders.
Custom timeframes are a dedicated field type that lets you define the planning cadences your team actually works to. Once created, they can be applied to any work item or OKR, used to filter, group, and sort across all your backlog and roadmap views, and connected to date automation and capacity planning to keep everything aligned without manual effort.
Custom timeframes and the default Quarter field
Custom timeframes work alongside the system Quarter field - you do not need to choose one or the other. Many teams run both at the same time: keeping Quarter for stakeholder reporting while using a custom timeframe (such as Program Increment) for internal planning.
The key difference is that custom timeframes are multi-select, meaning a single item can belong to more than one value - useful when an Epic spans two increments or a Feature crosses a quarter boundary. The system Quarter field is single-select only.
If you want to move fully to custom timeframes and retire the Quarter and Sprint fields from your workspace, it is possible to hide them - See the Migrating from Quarter and Sprint section below, and Hide Quarter & Sprint System Fields for the full steps.
Creating a timeframe field
Custom timeframes are created as a custom field in your Workspace Settings. Each workspace manages its own independently, but teams can also utilize a single Portfolio Custom Timeframe across multiple workspaces.
Follow these steps:
Go to Workspace (or Portfolio) Settings > Custom Fields
Click Add custom field and choose Timeframe as the field type
Enter a name - for example, Program Increment, Release Window, or Delivery Phase
Select which item types this field applies to (Epic, Feature, Story, and/or OKRs)
Add your values and define start and end dates for each one
Optionally enable Applicable for Capacity Planning if you want to use this timeframe in capacity simulations
Click Create
You can create more than one timeframe field per workspace if your team tracks multiple cadences simultaneously.
Assigning timeframes to items
Timeframe fields are multi-select, so one item can belong to more than one value - useful when an Epic or Feature spans two planning periods, such as PI-1 and PI-2.
Follow these steps:
Open the item panel, or locate the item in any backlog or table view
Ensure the timeframe field is visible - use Column selection to add it if needed
Click the field and select one or more values from the dropdown
To assign timeframes across many items at once, select them in bulk and apply the field from the bulk action toolbar. See Using bulk actions.
Tip: You can also drag items between Swimlanes and Groups (e.g. if you Group by your custom timeframe) to amend values.
Using timeframes in views
Once assigned, timeframe fields behave like any other field across your views:
Filter - show only items assigned to a specific planning period
Groups and Swimlanes - organise your backlog or roadmap by timeframe to see what is planned for each cycle
Sort - order items by timeframe value
This makes it possible to visualize work across multiple planning rhythms at the same time - for example, grouping by Program Increment while filtering to a single product area.
Date alignment automation
When an item moves between timeframe values, Craft.io can automatically update its start and end dates to match the new timeframe range. This is done through a date alignment automation rule, and removes the need to manually adjust dates every time planning shifts.
Follow these steps:
Go to Workspace Settings > Automation Rules
Click Add Rule and select Date Alignment
Choose the timeframe field you want to align dates against
Save the rule
Apply to existing items, if preferable
Note: Only one date alignment rule can be active per workspace. Alignment is one-directional - dates update when the timeframe changes, not the other way around.
Capacity planning with custom timeframes
Custom timeframes can connect to Craft.io's capacity planning, letting you model delivery against your team's actual working cadence rather than the default Quarter or Sprint. To enable this, toggle on Applicable for Capacity Planning when creating the timeframe field.
For an overview of capacity planning in Craft.io, see Introduction to capacity planning.
Migrating from the Quarter and Sprint system fields
If you want to move fully to a custom timeframe and stop using the system Quarter or Sprint fields, follow this sequence to avoid losing any existing data.
Follow these steps:
Create your new timeframe field with matching values and date ranges
Use bulk actions to copy Quarter values across your items into the new field
Check the new field is visible in all views, roadmaps, and item panels where Quarter appeared
Hide Quarter and Sprint from the workspace - go to Workspace Settings > Fields and toggle off their visibility
Tip: Do not hide Quarter or Sprint until all items have been mapped across. Items keep their data when fields are hidden, but the fields will disappear from views and filters. See Hide Quarter & Sprint System Fields.
What comes next
Date alignment automation rules - full setup guide for date automation
Hide Quarter & Sprint System Fields - retire the system fields once migrated
Using bulk actions - update timeframes across multiple items at once
Introduction to capacity planning - an overview of how capacity planning works in Craft.io
Need guidance? Our support team (bottom-right corner of your screen) replies to ANY question!