Time zone settings
Tracking hours on a multi-time zone payroll, and invoicing clients can cause confusion and billing errors. Clockify’s time zone settings control how logged time is displayed.
The Time View switcher allows you to choose whether time entries are displayed in their original recorded time zone or converted to the viewer’s local time zone.
In Clockify, there are two ways of interpreting time:
- Original time zone: Preserves the exact time and date stamps recorded in the app respecting the user’s local time zone, regardless of who views that time entry in a report or elsewhere.
- Example: A 9:00 AM entry logged in London will also appear exactly as 9:00 AM to a viewer looking at it in New York.
- Example: Admin from Tokyo and Admin from San Francisco pull a monthly billing report. Under Original time zone, both admins pull identical data and accurate billing sums every time., while under Viewer time zone, entries logged near midnight shift onto different dates depending on the viewer, creating mismatched daily totals.
- Viewer time zone: Show time entries translated to the local time zone of the person currently looking at the entries or report.
- Example: A 9:00 AM entry that was logged in London will appear translated to the local time (4:00 AM) for a viewer in New York.
Change Time data display setting #
Only admins can change this setting.
To select what time zone is applied across all workspace activities:
1. Go to Workspace settings
2. Select Time Tracking
3. Locate the Time entry format section
4. Scroll down to Time data display
Common Use Cases: Which View Should You Choose? #
Use Case 1: Original time zone
- The Scenario: You are managing a globally distributed team and need to ensure everyone is working their required 9-to-5 shifts according to their respective local times.
- Why use this setting: The Original time zone ensures that the data remains identical for everyone, showing time entries exactly as they were recorded.
If your employee in London logs a shift starting at 9:00 AM, this setting guarantees that a manager reviewing the report in New York will also see that entry as 9:00 AM.
Use Case 2: Viewer Time Zone
- The Scenario: You are a project manager looking at a timesheet report to understand exactly when different team members across the globe were working on a critical task relative to your own workday.
- Why use this setting: The Viewer time zone automatically translates time entries into the local time zone of the person looking at the report.
If an employee in London logged an entry at 9:00 AM their time, this setting will adjust that entry so the viewer in New York sees exactly when that happened in Eastern Time.
Understanding Time Zones & Mismatch Notifications #
Whether you’re working from home, traveling abroad, or updating your device clock, the app keeps your time logs accurate across all global teams.
How Workspaces Handle Time Zones
To keep team tracking clear and consistent, workspace defaults depend on when your workspace was set up:
- New Workspaces: Automatically use the Original Time Zone chosen by your organization. This ensures everyone’s logs line up accurately, no matter where team members are located.
- Older Workspaces: Workspaces created before the Original Time Zone feature was launched (September 15, 2026) will keep their existing Viewer Time Zone settings.
What Is a Time Zone Mismatch?
If you travel to a new location or change your device’s clock, the app will notice that your device time zone no longer matches your saved app preferences.
When this happens, you’ll receive a notification asking if you’d like to update your Preferences to your new local time zone.
Will the App Still Work During a Mismatch?
Yes! Your work won’t be lost.
- Uninterrupted Tracking: The app will keep running normally and will continue to log your time accurately based on your saved Preference settings.
- Temporary Restrictions: A few location-sensitive features in the Viewer Time Zone may be limited until you confirm and update your app preferences to match your device.
New Clockify workspaces default to the original time zone setting, unless created by an admin whose existing workspace already uses Viewer time zone, in which case the new workspace inherits that setting.
Switch between views #
Toggling between time zone views may lead to inconsistencies in how time is interpreted. Users are advised to select one time zone setting and maintain it consistently rather than alternating between options.
Switch to Original time zone
Time entries across the workspace, along with all historical data, will be presented using dates and time stamps pulled from the time zone where they were originally logged.
Switch to Viewer time zone
Time entries will be converted from their initially logged time zones to the currently chosen time zone in the Preference settings. All data on the workspace will be interpreted by each specific user’s time zone.