In ServiceNow all date and times are stored in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). They are displayed globally based on the system time zone (TZ), but are shown to users in their local time zone, according to his or her user preferences. It can be confusing to set the date and times as you see them, when you seem them. This causes mismatched times on applications and on your PC. Even more complicated, is if you check the saved data, it shows a different time.
When you open your application, the date and time will be displayed based on the User Preferences if it is not set on the system time zone. Even when the clients will display time based on the Operating System (OS) timezone, the application will still show the date and time based on the user profile.
Example of a time zone based on the user's preferences
The reason it shows 7:38:01 is because the computer is in the America/Los_Angeles TZ. Because my PC is in London Timezone, it shows 14:38.
The difference in PC time and application time is caused by a mismatch on the time zones controlled by the "Display" value.
If I want both time zones to match, I can either make my User profile to match my PC timezone, so my app shows the same time that my PC. Or, I can change the PC time to match the timezone of my user profile.
Changing the time of my User Profile to match the time zone of my PC
For example, instead of just changing the time manually*, you should just adjust the User Time Zone field to your location so that this date and times are displayed correctly. This small but signification action proactively prevents this mix-up from happening down the line. It might also be a good practice to have everyone in your organization utilize the user profile Time Zone to match their location so that it updates on its own.
Then, if I set the current "closed" time to, it shows the same time as displayed on my PC:
* Please note that changing the time manually (e.g. Manually typing 22:02 ) on the app, when the User profile timezone is incorrect, it will store the time on the _wrong_ UTC (database) time because the system will translate the display value incorrectly. If you need to manually type a date and time, please ensure your User profile timezone is correct.
The next time you see the date and times on your application are mismatched, remember the time is displayed based on your User profile, and not your client time so they can be different.
I have tested using Istanbul and Chrome browser.
More information here:
- Date and time fields on the apps and clients
- Adjust your ServiceNow instance Time Zone after Daylight Saving Time (DST)
- Daylight saving time problem in filtering in reports (KB0522354)
- ODBC Driver returns incorrect time adjustments during Daylight Saving (Summer Time) change (KB053482...
- Time zone representation (all releases) (KB0594661)
- Clarification of the GlideDateTime API (KB0594664)
- Do not use gs.nowDateTime() in a GlideDateTime constructor (KB0594666)
- Time zone representation (all releases) (KB0594661)
- gs.dateDiff() (Global GlideSystem) returns invalid results (KB0594663)
- Differences between user, system, and internal date and time formats (KB0596114 - Requires Hi Login)
- My other blogs posts
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