Date and time fields

You can add date and date and time fields to add more information about records, to filter records. and to trigger workflows.

Date format

How the date is formatted depends on the settings in the Date Format section on the Configuration > General Preferences page.

Users can also customize the date format. To do this, click People, open your record, and select a date format and separator type.

Note
In the examples provided in this article, the preferences are set to the American date format (MM/DD/YY), and the date separator is the forward slash (/). 

Date and time fields

Click Configuration > Data model > Field Configuration, select an object, and click Add. From the Data type list, select DateTime and then choose an option.

When you add a date field, you must choose one of the following subtypes:

• Date & Time. The date and time are shown in local time
• Date Only. The date is shown in (UTC + 0) time.
• Local Date. The date is shown in local time.

Administrators must choose the right subtype for date fields so that users in different time zones get the results that they expect to get when they filter records. In particular, organizations with offices in different time zones should take date conversion into account.

Date & Time 

To execute searches, Date & Time values are converted to UTC+0. The results of the search are shown in the user's time zone.

Note
The convention that's used in this article for displaying times in the illustrations is the 24-hour clock where 00:00:00 equates to midnight or 12 AM.

Figure 1: Converting Date & Time subtype to (UTC+0)

When you use the Before (Date) and the After (Date) filter operators in filters, the date is sent as is. That is, no date conversion occurs.

Figure 2: Using the Before date operator in filters

For example, if your time zone is (UTC+3) and you want to review all the records that were changed before 05/29/23, all the records that were changed before 05/29/23 00:00:00 are returned and shown in your local time zone.

Even though the time isn’t specified when the Between filter operator is used in searches, the start and end date of the search are converted to (UTC+0).

Figure 3: Using the between operator in filters

For example, if your time zone is (UTC+3) and you want to review all the records that were changed between 05/28/23 and 05/29/23, all the records that were changed between 05/27/23 21:00:00 and 05/28/23 21:00:00 are returned and shown in your local time zone.

Date Only

If you choose the date-only subtype, the date entered in the field is processed in the database as if the user's time zone is UTC + 0, and the time is 00:00:00.

Figure 4: Using Date Only to filter records

When the following filters are applied, the filter is applied as if the user's time zone is (UTC + 0) and the time is 00:00:00:

• Equals
• Does Not Equal
• Between
• Before (Date)
• After (Date) 

Local Date

To execute searches, the dates are converted to UTC+0. The results of the search are shown in the user's time zone.

Figure 5: Converting the Local Date to (UTC+0)

When the following filters are applied, the filter is applied as if the user's time zone is (UTC + 0) and the time is 00:00:00:

• Equals
• Does Not Equal
• Between
• Before (Date)
• After (Date) 

Even though the time isn’t specified when the Between filter operator is used in searches, the start and end date of the search are converted to (UTC+0).

See Figure 2: Using the Before date operator in filters and Figure 3: Using the between dates operator in filters.

Restriction
You can't change the date format from date and time to date only. If you need to change the date format, contact [e-mail].