Question

Which time zone does Zendesk use?

Answer

Timestamps can be displayed in different time zones across your Zendesk account, depending on your configuration.

Click the sections below to understand where to view time zones across Zendesk:

  • Time zone for tickets
  • Time zone for voice calls
  • Time zone for chats
  • API timestamps
  • End user portal

Time zone for tickets

Ticket timestamps appear in the time zone set on your user profile. Each user on the account can have a different time zone. However, by default, all user profiles are set to the primary Zendesk account time zone.

To view or update the primary Zendesk account time zone:

  1. In Admin center, click the Account icon () in the side panel
  2. Navigate to Appearance > Localization
  3. Under Time zone and format > Account time zone, select the appropriate time zone

To view or update an individual user profile time zone:

  1. Click the Search icon () in the upper right of the top toolbar
  2. Enter the user's name or email address
  3. Filter your search by clicking Users
  4. Choose a user from the list
  5. Find the Time zone field in the side panel and change it as needed

Time zone for voice calls

There are three different places you might see a voice call timestamp, and each location has different rules that dictate the time zone that is displayed.

Call recording timestamps

Timestamps on a ticket are displayed in the time zone set on the profile of the agent or admin viewing it. If no time zone is set in the user profile, the timestamps will use the primary Zendesk account's time zone. For more information on how to set these time zones, check Ticket time zone.

Call recording timestamp.png

Inbound call timestamps

When your agents receive a call, Zendesk Support creates a ticket with an internal note that indicates the details of the call. The Time of call displayed in this note uses the UTC timezone.

Incoming call timestamp.png

Usage charges timestamps

The timestamps are shown on the Usage charges page in the primary Zendesk account time zone.talk usage time stamps in call usage tab

Time zone for chat

Chat uses a mix of UTC, local time, and account settings to display the timestamps. The following sections describe which timezone is displayed across different features:

  • The Chat transcripts in tickets are always displayed in the UTC time zone:
  • The account time zone is mainly used for operating hours and the Analytics page. For information on setting the chat account time zone, see the article: How do I set the Chat dashboard timezone?
  • Timestamps on the History page and within individual chats appear in the local time. The local time is determined by the system time on the agent device currently being used to view the data.
  • The website analytics on the Home dashboard shows statistics in UTC, as does the CSV export file, which you can extract from this feature.

API timestamps

Timestamps in the API use UTC and are formatted as ISO 8601 strings. For example:2015-04-16T09:14:57Z.

Some endpoints use Unix time, also known as Epoch or POSIX time. For example;1455821369. For more information, see the Zendesk Core API.

End user portal

Timestamps in the help center customer portal use the timezone set on the device or operating system that the end user is viewing the ticket from. The timestamp will change automatically based on the timezone set on the device they are viewing the ticket from.

For more information on dashboard deliveries, see the article: How does Zendesk account for daylight savings time?

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