Jira cannot export a dashboard to a document file, and it cannot email one on a schedule. This is a platform constraint, not a configuration option: there is no native dashboard export function anywhere in Jira Cloud or Jira Data Center.
Two apps together close that gap. Better PDF Exporter for Jira renders a dashboard and all of its gadgets into a PDF document. Better PDF Automation for Jira, which is free and requires Better PDF Exporter, triggers that export on a schedule or on an event and emails the result.
Verified against Better PDF Exporter for Jira Cloud and Data Center, August 2026.
Why a Jira dashboard cannot be shared outside Jira
A Jira dashboard summarizes information on one screen using gadgets. A gadget holds an issue list, a chart, an activity stream, or another block of key data.
The dashboard stops being useful the moment the audience is outside Jira:
- It cannot be exported to a document file such as PDF or Word.
- It prints badly, because browsers struggle to lay a dashboard out across printed pages.
- Exporting it as an image loses selectable text and clickable links.
- Sharing the URL requires the recipient to hold a Jira license and to have permission on every underlying filter.
That last point is the one that usually forces the decision. Sending an executive, an auditor, or a client a dashboard link means either buying them a seat or not sending the report.
What changed in the Atlassian Cloud stack in August 2026
On 10 August 2026 Atlassian published a deprecation notice, CHANGE-3208, removing dashboard subscriptions and server-side PDF and PNG exports from Atlassian Analytics. The stages are: no new subscriptions from 8 September 2026, and full removal for low-touch customers on 2 November 2026. Atlassian's guidance is to explore alternative ways to share data, or to move to manual exports where they exist.
Better PDF Exporter replaces the delivery mechanism for the Atlassian Analytics reporting that sits on Jira data. Many teams built Analytics dashboards in the first place because a Jira dashboard could not be exported or emailed.
For that subset of reports, the gadgets already exist in Jira, and a scheduled PDF export delivers the same outcome from inside Jira.
Which recurring dashboard report options survive
| Method | Recurring delivery | Layout and text fidelity | Works on Jira dashboards | Available after 2 Nov 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Native Jira dashboard export | No export function exists | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Browser print to PDF | Manual only | Poor, gadgets break across pages | Yes | Yes |
| Screenshot or image capture | Manual only | Text not selectable, links dead | Yes | Yes |
| Atlassian Analytics dashboard subscription | Scheduled email | Server-rendered PDF or PNG | No, Analytics dashboards only | No |
| Better PDF Exporter with Better PDF Automation | Scheduled or event-driven | Full template control, selectable text, live links | Yes | Yes |
How to schedule a Jira dashboard PDF report on Jira Cloud
Build the dashboard first, then let the app generate the identifiers for you rather than assembling them by hand.
- Install Better PDF Exporter for Jira Cloud, then install the free Better PDF Automation for Jira Cloud.
- Open the dashboard you want to send and export it manually once, choosing the PDF view the rule should reuse. Ignore the downloaded file.
- Click View PDF automation tips at the bottom of the export dialog and copy the generated
exportsection. It already carries the correct identifiers. - In Jira Cloud Automation, create a rule with a Scheduled trigger, for example every Monday at 08:00.
- Add the PDF callback rule and the PDF export rule as described in the PDF automation tutorial, pasting the generated
exportsection into the request body. - Confirm the two dashboard-specific fields:
export: viewContext: DASHBOARD dashboardId: 10310
- Set the recipients on the send action, then save and name the rule.
viewContext must hold the literal value DASHBOARD, and dashboardId must hold the numeric ID from the end of the dashboard URL.
Copying the generated section is safer than typing these, because the rest of the request body has to match the PDF view you chose in step 2.
On Jira Cloud the automation can email the PDF or attach it to a Jira issue.
How to schedule a Jira dashboard PDF report on Jira Data Center
The Data Center setup uses Automation for Jira and a dedicated Send PDF action. Install these in order, because Better PDF Automation checks for the other two. On current Jira Data Center versions that means two apps, since Automation for Jira is already bundled:
- Better PDF Exporter for Jira
- Automation for Jira (Now part of Jira Data Center, no separate app is needed)
- Better PDF Automation for Jira
Then build the rule:
- Open the Administration menu and choose System.
- Find Automation rules under Automation for Jira in the left sidebar.
- Create a new rule and give it a scheduled trigger.
- Put a JQL search in the trigger. The export does not use it, but the trigger requires one.
- Add the Send PDF action.
- Enter the dashboard ID in the action's Title field. This is documented behavior, not a workaround: the
dashboard-fo.vmtemplate reads the dashboard ID from the HTTP request parameter for web exports, and falls back to the value passed in the Title field for automations. - Save the rule and name it.
On Data Center the automation can email the PDF, attach it to an issue, or save it to a file system path for long-term retention.
How do I find the dashboard ID
The dashboard ID is the number at the end of the dashboard URL.
On Jira Data Center the URL ends in /secure/Dashboard.jspa?selectPageId=10310, where 10310 is the ID.
A newly created dashboard may not show the ID immediately. Open the Dashboard Manager from the Dashboard menu and click through to the dashboard from there.
Which gadgets can be exported
On Jira Cloud every gadget type is exported. Support comes in two forms: gadgets with full support are rendered with real text and working links, and the remainder are captured as a screenshot image, which prints correctly but does not keep selectable text.
Gadgets with full support on Cloud, by type:
- Report gadgets: Assigned to Me, Filter Results, Issue Statistics, Issues in Progress, Two Dimensional Filter Statistics, Voted Issues, Watched Issues
- Chart gadgets: Average Age Chart, Average Number of Times in Status, Average Time in Status, Created vs Resolved Chart, Pie Chart, Recently Created Chart, Resolution Time Chart, Time Since Chart
- Jira Agile gadgets: Agile Wallboard, Sprint Burndown, Sprint Health
- Jira Service Management gadgets: Filter Counts
- Third-party gadgets: Custom Charts, Rich Filters
On Jira Data Center the supported list is explicit rather than universal, and it covers the report, chart and agile gadgets most often placed on a reporting dashboard. An unsupported gadget still exports, with a short notice in place of its content. The full list for both deployment types is in the dashboards documentation.
Do the recipients need a Jira license
No. The PDF is a document, so anyone who can receive an email can open it. This is the reason most teams set the automation up: reporting reaches executives, auditors, clients and colleagues in other tools without adding a Jira seat for each of them.
Reporting on a schedule for audit and compliance
Audit work rarely asks for a live dashboard. It asks for the state of a project at a fixed point in time, in a form that cannot be edited after the fact.
A scheduled dashboard export produces exactly that, on its own, at whatever interval the control requires. The PDF carries a timestamp, keeps the branding and layout consistent across every period, and can be attached to a Jira issue so the evidence lives next to the work it describes.
Teams building this out for SOC 2 and PCI evidence usually pair the dashboard report with issue-level exports so both the summary and the underlying records are captured on the same cadence.
Where to go next
The dashboards documentation covers layout, column counts, paper sizes and template customization. The PDF automation reference covers triggers, conditions and the request body in full.
To see what the output looks like before installing anything, the dashboard and report export samples include a weekly Jira Service Management report, a scrum sprint report and a project status report.
