Turn Outlook out-of-office into Jira absences

The problem

The holiday is in Outlook as an automatic reply or a blocked calendar entry, but not in Jira. Nobody knows the assignee is away, issues sit untouched, and the team calendar is wrong.

Step by step

1. Switch on. In Mail & calendar, an administrator switches on the import and chooses whether imports arrive as requests for the approver or count as approved, and which absence type they get.
2. Plan as usual. People schedule their automatic reply or add a calendar entry shown as out of office. Both for the same trip become one absence.
3. Arrive. Calendar changes arrive within about a minute, automatic replies within the hour. Days already requested in Jira are left out.
4. Follow. Until the absence starts, moving or removing it in the mailbox moves or cancels it in Jira.
5. Opt out. Each person can switch the import off on their own absence page; unlinking the mailbox stops it too.

What to watch out for

Imports get no substitute, so they never reassign issues; to add one, cancel the import and request the absence in Jira — it is not imported again. Of calendar entries only start and end are read. Only scheduled automatic replies with an end count; an open-ended one is not an absence. Once an absence has started, changes in the mailbox no longer touch it.