Applies to Product - Dynamics 365 Finance
What’s happening?
Customers have questions regarding how date and time fields interact with time zones in the system, particularly concerning transaction dates, created dates, user preferences, and legal entity time zones. There are also inquiries about the implications of consolidating entries from different time zones and managing data synchronization with other applications.
Reason:
Date and time fields are stored in the database in UTC format, regardless of the user's or legal entity's time zone. The application offsets the database field value based on the user's time zone when displaying information in the user interface, which is a client-side logic.
Resolution:
- For understanding how date/time data type fields and time zones are managed, refer to Microsoft's public resource: Date/time data and time zones - Finance & Operations | Dynamics 365 | Microsoft Learn.
- When a user makes an entry based on their user preference time zone, the application will adjust the transaction date and created date accordingly for display purposes.
- When consolidating entries from different time zones, it is essential to ensure that all date/time values are converted to a common time zone (typically UTC) to maintain consistency.
- For data interfacing with other applications, it is crucial to consider the time zone differences to ensure accurate data reconciliation.