How to Build Notion Database for Bug Tracking With Severity Sort

You need a structured system to track software bugs and prioritize them by impact. A Notion database with a custom severity property lets you sort issues from critical to low in one click. This article walks you through building a bug tracking database, configuring a severity select property, and applying a sort that keeps the most urgent bugs at the top. You will also learn how to add linked views for different teams and avoid common setup mistakes.

What a Notion Bug Tracking Database Does

A Notion database stores rows of bug reports with columns for title, status, severity, assignee, and reproduction steps. The severity property is a Select field that lets you tag each bug with a priority level. Sorting by severity descending places Critical bugs at the top of the list, followed by High, Medium, and Low. This eliminates manual reordering and ensures your team works on the most impactful issues first.

Before building the database, you need a Notion workspace with edit access. You do not need a paid plan for a single database, but team collaboration requires at least the Notion Plus plan. You also need permissions to create database properties and set sort rules.

Steps to Create the Bug Tracking Database and Configure Severity Sort

1. Create a new database page
   Open your Notion workspace and click the + New Page button in the left sidebar. Select Table from the database template options. Name the page “Bug Tracker” or a similar name your team recognizes.
2. Add the default bug tracking columns
   Notion creates an empty table with a Title column. Click the + button in the last column header to add the following properties:
   – Status: Select property with options Open, In Progress, Resolved, Closed
   – Severity: Select property with options Critical, High, Medium, Low
   – Assignee: Person property
   – Reproduction Steps: Text property (long text)
   – Date Reported: Date property
3. Configure the Severity select options
   Click the Severity column header and choose Edit property. In the Select options section, add each severity level: Critical, High, Medium, Low. You can color-code them by clicking the color dot next to each option. Use red for Critical, orange for High, yellow for Medium, and gray or green for Low.
4. Set the default sort rule
   Click the Sort button near the top-right of the table view. A sort panel opens. Click Add a sort and choose Severity as the property. Set the direction to Descending. This places Critical bugs at the top because the alphabetical order (Critical, High, Low, Medium) is reversed when sorted descending. If you prefer a custom order, you can reorder the options in the property settings by dragging them — the sort follows the property order you define.
5. Add a filter to exclude closed items
   Click the Filter button next to Sort. Add a filter: Status does not equal Closed. This hides resolved bugs from the main view. You can create a separate view for archived bugs.
6. Create team-specific views
   Click the + tab next to the current view tab. Name the new view “Development Team” or “QA Team.” In this new view, click Filter and add Assignee contains [team member name] or Assignee is [group]. The sort rule from the previous view carries over automatically. Repeat for each team.

Common Mistakes and Limitations

Sort order does not match severity priority

Notion sorts Select properties alphabetically by default. If you set the sort direction to Descending, Critical appears above High, but Medium and Low may appear out of order. To fix this, edit the Severity property and drag the options in the order you want: Critical, High, Medium, Low. Then set the sort direction to Ascending. Notion respects the custom order you defined.

Team members cannot see only their bugs

Without filters, every team member sees the full bug list. Create a filtered view for each person or team. Click Add a view > Table, name it after the person, and add a filter on the Assignee property. Share the view link with that person so they always open their filtered list.

Severity column shows no options when editing a bug

This happens if the property type was changed or the options were deleted. Open the property settings by clicking the column header and choosing Edit property. Re-add the options if missing. If the property type was accidentally changed to Text, create a new Select property named Severity and migrate the values manually.

Bug Tracker Database Properties: Purpose and Example Values

Property	Type	Example Values
Title	Title (default)	Login button unresponsive on mobile
Status	Select	Open, In Progress, Resolved, Closed
Severity	Select	Critical, High, Medium, Low
Assignee	Person	@alice, @bob
Reproduction Steps	Text	1. Open app 2. Tap login 3. Nothing happens
Date Reported	Date	2025-03-20

You can add more properties like Environment (Select), Screenshot (Files & Media), or Linked Issues (Relation to another database). Keep the property list lean so the table does not become cluttered.

If the Sort Still Shows Bugs in Wrong Order

Sort rule is applied only to the current view

Each view in a Notion database has its own sort and filter settings. If you switch to a different view tab, the sort may be missing or different. Apply the sort rule to every view that needs it. Click the view tab, open Sort, and add the rule again for that specific view.

Grouping overrides the sort

If you have enabled Grouping on a column (e.g., grouping by Status), the sort works within each group but not across groups. To see all bugs sorted by severity regardless of status, remove the grouping. Click the Group button and select No grouping.

Linked database views inherit different sort rules

When you embed a linked view of the Bug Tracker into another page, the linked view has its own sort settings. Open the linked view, click the three-dot menu, choose Customize view, and set the sort rule there.

You now have a fully functional bug tracking database in Notion with severity-based sorting. Start entering your first bugs and assign them to team members using the Person property. For advanced use, add a Rollup property to calculate the average time from Date Reported to Resolved, giving you a metric for team velocity.