Working with Time Zones

You can store dates and times in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) so that dates/times can be accurately converted and displayed in the time zone of the location, technician, and user. In addition, time zones can be adjusted for Daylight Savings Time (DST).

When and how are times converted - an overview

Times are not converted to GMT as soon as you enable the time zone feature in setup. Immediately after you turn on the time zone view feature, the system will attempt to populate certain specific date/time related fields in GMT in the database for new records added. Existing service call, time stamp, and appointment data must be converted after you populate certain tables with time zone values. Existing data must be converted before you add new service calls or appointments.

Service call, time stamp, and appointment get the time zone from location.

Time Zones and the corresponding data conversions must be set up and executed immediately after turning on the time zone view option and BEFORE new service call or appointment data is entered or existing service call or appointment data is edited.

Failure to perform the implementation of this feature in this manner could result in invalid service call or appointment time related data; therefore, we suggest that time zone views be implemented during non-business hours.

Before turning on or turning off the time zone view feature, a current backup should be created of your company data.

Some additional notes regarding time conversions:

When converting between time zones, if the time becomes 12:00:00 AM, the system will add one second to the time, for example, 12:00:01.
For activities, the system determines the start and end times based on the technician's time zone. This is necessary since, when converting to GMT, the time may span multiple days.
For appointments, when checking to see if an appointment conflicts with existing appointments, the system will use the technician's time zone as a guide.