> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.timetracker.in/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Dates, times and timezones

> How TimeTracker handles dates, time formats, week start and timezones – including why a person's timezone comes from their work schedule, not the workspace.

Time is the product, so it is worth knowing exactly how TimeTracker handles dates,
clocks and timezones. Most of it is invisible. One part surprises people, and it is
covered below.

## Date and time formats

A workspace picks how dates and times are written, and that choice applies
everywhere – lists, reports, invoices and exports.

### Date format

| Option        | Example                 |
| ------------- | ----------------------- |
| `MMM D, YYYY` | Jul 9, 2026 *(default)* |
| `MM/DD/YYYY`  | 07/09/2026              |
| `DD/MM/YYYY`  | 09/07/2026              |

The default is the written form on purpose. `07/09/2026` means July 9th to an
American reader and 7th September to a European one, and TimeTracker is sold
globally. If your team is in one country, switch to whichever numeric form they
expect.

### Time format

| Option | Example |
| ------ | ------- |
| `12h`  | 5:30 PM |
| `24h`  | 17:30   |

### Week start

Which day a week begins on. This changes:

* Where the [timesheet](/timesheets/overview) week starts and ends
* How weekly reports group their buckets
* Which days the calendar view shows first

Change it in [date and time formats](/settings/date-and-time-formats). You need
`workspace.updateSettings`.

<Warning>
  Changing the week start shifts every timesheet boundary. Do it between weeks, not in
  the middle of one, and not while timesheets are waiting for approval.
</Warning>

## Timezones

Here is the part worth reading carefully.

### A person's timezone comes from their work schedule

Not from the workspace. Not from their browser. From the **work schedule** assigned
to them.

This sounds like a technicality until you have a distributed team, and then it is the
thing that makes the numbers correct.

**Example.** Northwind Studio is registered in London, so the workspace timezone is
`Europe/London`. But:

* Sarah works from Dublin – her schedule puts her on `Europe/Dublin`
* Jonas works from Stockholm – his schedule puts him on `Europe/Stockholm`
* Ana works from São Paulo – her schedule puts her on `America/Sao_Paulo`

When Ana clocks in at 09:00 her time, TimeTracker records it as 09:00 **for Ana** –
not as 13:00 London time labelled as her morning. Her day starts when her day starts.

If a person's timezone came from the workspace, every distributed team would see
hours landing on the wrong day, expected hours computed against the wrong clock, and
absences flagged for people who were asleep.

See [schedule timezones](/schedules/schedule-timezones).

### What the workspace timezone is for

The workspace timezone is the fallback and the reference for anything that is not
about one person:

* Period boundaries for a [monthly retainer budget](/budgets/recurring-retainers)
* Workspace-wide scheduled jobs and report deliveries
* The default for a new schedule

### Which day does an hour land on?

A time entry belongs to the day it happened in **the person's** timezone.

Jonas works 22:00 to 01:00 on a Friday night in Stockholm. Three hours are recorded:
two on Friday, one on Saturday, because that is what his calendar says. His timesheet
splits them the same way.

## Daylight saving

TimeTracker uses real timezone rules, not fixed offsets, so daylight saving is
handled for you.

Two consequences worth knowing:

* On the day the clocks go forward, a "9 to 5" day is **23 hours** long in wall-clock
  terms. Expected hours follow the schedule, so this does not distort a timesheet.
* A recurring block or schedule stays at its **local** time. A 09:00 stand-up stays
  at 09:00 for the person, even though the underlying instant shifts.

## Duration vs time of day

Two different things that both look like time:

|                 | Example | Where it is used                    |
| --------------- | ------- | ----------------------------------- |
| **Time of day** | 09:15   | Clock in, clock out, block start    |
| **Duration**    | 3h 30m  | Time entry length, estimate, budget |

A duration has no timezone. Three and a half hours is three and a half hours
everywhere. That is why a time entry's **length** is never affected by travel, but the
**day it lands on** is.

## Typing a time

Time fields accept shorthand, so you rarely need the full form:

| You type | You get |
| -------- | ------- |
| `11a`    | 11:00   |
| `16`     | 16:00   |
| `9:30p`  | 21:30   |

The field respects your workspace's 12h or 24h setting when it displays the result.

## Picking a date

Every date field in TimeTracker uses the same date picker, so a date range behaves
identically on a report, a filter, a leave request and an invoice.

Reports add named periods – this week, last month, this quarter – on top of a custom
range. See [date ranges and periods](/reports/date-ranges-and-periods).

## Common questions

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="My hours landed on the wrong day. Why?">
    Almost always a timezone difference between the person and whoever is looking. An
    hour belongs to the day it happened in **the tracker's** timezone, which comes
    from their work schedule. Check the schedule assigned to that person. See
    [missing or wrong hours](/troubleshooting/missing-or-wrong-hours).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can one person use a different date format?">
    No. Date and time format are workspace-wide, so everyone reads the same report the
    same way. Timezone **is** per person, through their schedule.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What if someone has no schedule assigned?">
    They fall back to the workspace timezone. Assign a schedule for anyone who does
    not work in the workspace's own timezone. See
    [assign a schedule](/schedules/assign-a-schedule).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Someone travelled for a week. Do I change their timezone?">
    Usually not. The schedule reflects where they normally work. Changing it for a
    trip shifts how their whole week is bucketed, which is rarely what you want.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Do invoices use the workspace timezone?">
    Invoice dates use the workspace's format and timezone, since an invoice is a
    business document, not a personal one.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does changing the week start rewrite old timesheets?">
    It changes how weeks are grouped from then on. Avoid changing it while any
    timesheet is awaiting approval.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related guides

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Date and time formats" icon="calendar" href="/settings/date-and-time-formats">
    The setting itself.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Schedule timezones" icon="globe" href="/schedules/schedule-timezones">
    Where a person's timezone actually comes from.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Expected vs tracked hours" icon="table" href="/timesheets/expected-vs-tracked-hours">
    How schedules drive the timesheet.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Missing or wrong hours" icon="circle-question" href="/troubleshooting/missing-or-wrong-hours">
    The most common timezone symptom.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>