How does TimeTac handle time zones?

TimeTac saves the time zone with every time entry, so working times stay correct wherever your team works. There is nothing to set up. You see time zone differences in the Calendar, in Reports, in Analytics and in Requests.

How does TimeTac detect your time zone?

TimeTac takes the time zone from the device you record time on: your browser, the desktop app, the mobile app or the time clock terminal. If you travel, the time zone follows you automatically. There is no time zone setting per user or per account.

Every entry is shown in local time, the wall-clock time at the place where it was recorded. A working day from 09:00 to 17:00 in Lisbon stays 09:00 to 17:00, even when an admin views it in Vienna. TimeTac doesn’t convert entries into the viewer’s current time.

How can you spot entries from another time zone?

A globe icon marks every entry recorded in a time zone with a different clock offset than yours. It shows the entry’s start and end time in both time zones: the one where the entry was recorded or last edited (User’s time) and the one you’re in now (Your time). You also see the time difference, for example +1. Entries from your own time zone have no marker.

The marker depends on the clock offset, not on the country. Vienna and Berlin share the same clock time, so no marker appears. Vienna and Lisbon are one hour apart, so entries from Lisbon get a marker. You see the marker in these places:

• Calendar, in the calendar and the list view
• Timesheet report
• Compliance report
• Analytics
• Requests
• Change logs

If you stop a timer in a different time zone than the one you started it in, TimeTac saves the whole entry in the start time zone. The entry then doesn’t show that you stopped it in another time zone.

How do work schedules apply across time zones?

You define work schedules once, and they apply in each employee’s local time. This covers core hours, the working time frame, premium pay, assignment start dates, public holidays and full-day absences. You don’t need a separate work schedule per location.

For example, core hours from 09:00 to 15:00 set in Vienna mean 09:00 to 15:00 New York time for an employee in New York. TimeTac also checks compliance rules in the employee’s local time. These include core hours, maximum working hours, breaks and premium pay.

For the core hours check, TimeTac takes the time zone of your last completed time entry. If there is none, it takes the time zone of the running timer, otherwise the account’s default time zone. So if an employee travels from Vienna to Toronto, Vienna core hours still apply at first. Until they record time in Toronto, a false violation can appear.

Date filters return the same entries for every viewer, wherever they are. Project budgets are the one exception: their expiry and scope dates count “today” in the account’s default time zone.

What happens when you edit an entry from another time zone?

When you edit an entry, TimeTac automatically takes the time zone of your device. If the entry comes from another time zone, the times stay as shown, and the entry moves into your time zone. Duration and date don’t change.

Follow these steps

1. Open the entry with the globe icon in the Calendar.
2. Edit the entry. A note in the dialog shows that the entry comes from another time zone.
3. Click Save.
4. Check the entry. The globe icon is gone because the entry is now in your time zone.

You now know how to record and view working times across time zones in TimeTac.