Project Timezone Assignment

Inspire Planner allows you to define the Timezone for your Projects. This feature is particularly useful when there are project managers who may be located in one timezone and the assigned resource is located in a different timezone. The Project Manager is able to specify the project timezone so that when he/she is looking at the project interface, the project schedule is displayed using the project timezone.

When the assigned resource, who is located in a different timezone, view his/her tasks, the task start and end times are displayed according to the viewing user's timezone.

How is the project timezone determined?

When creating a new project, the user can choose to either:

1. Select a value from the timezone picklist - this will then set the project timezone according to the timezone the user selects. 
    
2. Leave timezone blank - this will default the project timezone to the user's timezone. If the user's timezone does not exist in the Inspire Planner timezone picklist, it will then display an error prompting you to add the missing value in the Inspire Planner timezone picklist.
   
   If you would like to add values to the Inspire Planner Timezone picklist, please see Updating Timezone Picklist Values.

Please note the following:

• When a user opens the Project Task record, the Start Date/Time and Finish Date/Time will display according to the viewing user's timezone. 
   
• When users look at Resource Utilization, they will see the task plot according to the Project Task Start Date/Time and Finish Date/Time they see when they open the project task record.
   
• Timezone is not inherited from Project Templates or the Global Default Project Setting. For example, if the Template time zone is set to (GMT-05:00) Eastern Standard Time (America/New_York) where task start and end time is 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and it is applied to a project where the project time zone is (GMT-08:00) Pacific Standard Time (America/Vancouver), then the project tasks in the new project will have a start and end time of 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM but in (GMT-08:00) Pacific Standard Time (America/Vancouver).
   
• When cloning a project using the "Save As" feature, the new project inherits the time zone of the source (original) project.

Daylight Savings & Standard Time

Some timezones have daylight savings and standard time (e.g. America/New York, America/Vancouver, etc.). When the user's timezone changes (e.g. daylight savings to standard time), the project timezone does not change. This means that if the project timezone was set to the user's timezone, which was (GMT-05:00) Eastern Standard Time at the time the project was created, and the user's timezone changed to (GMT-04:00) Eastern Daylight Time, the project timezone would remain as (GMT-05:00) Eastern Standard Time.

Project tasks in projects set in a timezone that has standard and daylight savings time (i.e. America/New York, America/Vancouver, etc.), will plot according to the start and end of the working day in the project settings of the project timezone. For example, let's say your user timezone is currently set at (GMT-04:00) Eastern Daylight Time and you create a new project. It will default the project timezone to the same timezone as your user, which is (GMT-04:00) Eastern Daylight Time. When you create tasks in this new project, Inspire Planner will look at the "Start of Working Day" and "End of Working Day" in Project Settings and plot tasks according to these values in the project timezone. So, if the start and end of the working day is set to 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, then project tasks will plot at 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM of (GMT-04:00) Eastern Daylight Time. This is the value that is saved in the database.

When you open a project task where the task dates fall from March to November which is (GMT-0:400) Eastern Daylight Time and your user timezone is also (GMT-0:400) Eastern Daylight Time, the task start and end time will display as 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. However, if you open a project task with dates that fall within December to February (which would be within the scope of (GM-0:500) Eastern Standard Time), they will display to you as 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM since your user timezone is still in (GMT-0:400) Eastern Daylight Time.

When your user timezone changes to (GM-0:500) Eastern Standard Time, the project timezone does not change and remains, as (GM-0:400) Eastern Daylight Time. Project tasks will not be rescheduled when you open the project Gantt as there is no change in the project timezone. However, when you open the project task record, if the project task date falls within March to November which is (GM-0:400) Eastern Daylight Time), and your user is now in (GM-0:500) Eastern Standard Time, the task start and end time will display as 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM. If you open a project task with dates that fall within December to February which is (GM-0:500) Eastern Standard Time), which is the same timezone as your user timezone, they will display as 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM.

Timezone Switching Caution:

If your project timezone is set to a timezone that does not have daylight savings and standard time (i.e. America/La_Paz), you should not change the project timezone to one that has both daylight savings and standard time as this would result in a recalculation of task dates and times.