Dealing with time zones can be confusing; here's everything you need to know about time zones in Booxi.
To understand time zones, familiarize yourself with these 2 terms that will be referenced throughout this article:
Store time zone: the time zone associated with your store.
Device time zone: the time zone of the device the user is accessing Booxi with (e.g. a computer, phone or tablet)
Each Booxi store has an associated time zone.
For stores that are linked to a Head Office account:
By default, such stores inherit the Head Office store template's time zone; however, this can be changed from the Head Office account ("My Stores" tab > {select a store} > Store details)
For stores that are NOT linked to a Head Office account:
The store time zone will be based on the country associated with your business address, which is chosen during the creation of your account, as shown below:
Once your store is created, you won't be able to change its time zone manually. To do so, contact your Booxi representative. See here for an important note.
The "source" timezone of all bookings is the store time zone. However, the booking date/times shown in each user's Booxi account is based on their device time zone. Consider the below examples:
Example 1:
Store timezone: Canada/Toronto EST (UTC−05:00)
John's device timezone: Canada/Toronto EST (UTC−05:00).
David's device timezone: Vancouver/Canada PST (UTC−08:00).
John creates an appointment for 9:00 AM on Monday, January 1.
Result:
In John's calendar tab, the appointment is listed at 9:00 AM on Monday, January 1.
In David's calendar tab, the appointment is listed at 6:00 AM on Monday, January 1.
Example 2:
Store timezone: Canada/Toronto EST (UTC−05:00)
John's device timezone: Canada/Toronto EST (UTC−05:00).
David's device timezone: Vancouver/Canada PST (UTC−08:00).
David creates an appointment for 9:00 AM on Monday, January 1.
Result:
In John's calendar tab, the appointment is listed at 12:00 PM on Monday, January 1.
In David's calendar tab, the appointment is listed at 9:00 AM on Monday, January 1.
We strongly recommend matching your device time zone and the store time zone to avoid any confusion.
The time slots shown to your clients when booking online reflect the store time zone; this means that the bookings they request are also based on the store time zone. For example:
Your store time zone is set to Canada/Toronto EST (UTC−05:00). Your client's device timezone is set to Canada/Vancouver PST (UTC−08:00). The client chooses the 9:00-10:00 AM time slot: the appointment is created for 9:00-10:00 AM EST.
For services that are offered via videoconference or phone, clients whose device timezone is different than the store's will be able to choose to display the date/time according to their device time zone or the store's.
In the booking widget v3:
In the booking widget v2:
*Note: clients can only change the timezone when modifying the booking from the tracking page.
Dates/times included in client booking confirmation and reminder emails/SMS are based on the store time zone.
These emails will include an ICS event at the top of the window which will display the time according to the client's mailbox time zone (e.g. Gmail, Outlook). The client can then add the event to their calendar application.
The times shown to the client in the tracking page reflect the store time zone.
Changing a Store's Time Zone
Changing a store’s time zone does not automatically update the times of existing bookings, availability slots, reminders, or tasks. This means that after the change, scheduled items will still appear at the same time, but now in the new time zone. This can cause discrepancies and lead to appointments happening earlier or later than expected.
Example:
Let’s say your store is currently set to the Canada/Toronto time zone (Eastern Time, UTC−05:00), and you have an appointment scheduled for Monday, January 10 at 9:00 AM EST.
If you then update your store’s time zone to Canada/Vancouver (Pacific Time, UTC−08:00), the system will continue to show the appointment as Monday, January 10 at 9:00 AM — but now it's based on Pacific Time.
In effect, the appointment will take place 3 hours later than originally intended, unless you manually adjust the time.