Setting time zones

Pick your time zone and decide if clients pick a time zone or use yours

This guide explains how to set or change your time zone, and manage time zone settings for clients in Acuity.

Client time zones

You decide if clients automatically use your time zone, or give them the option choose their own time zone. If you give your clients the option to choose a time zone, everything from available appointment times to automated notifications will display in their time zone.

Choose one of three behaviors for client time zones

• Your scheduler is set to your time zone, and the client can't change it.
• Your scheduler is set to your time zone, and the client can change it.
• Your scheduler is set to your client's time zone (detected from browser settings), and the client can change it.

Learn how to adjust this setting.

Note: Clients can't edit time zones after booking. Instead, they should cancel their existing appointment and schedule a new one.

Set up your time zone settings

To set your business time zone and decide how clients will interact with time zones:

1. In Acuity, click Availability.
2. Click Global Scheduling Limits, then click the Time Zone tab.
3. Choose a time zone from the Time zone dropdown menu.
4. Select either Default to business time zone or Default to client time zone. If you select Default to business time zone, turn the Clients can edit time zone toggle on or off.
5. Click Save changes.

Tip: You can set different time zones for each of your calendars with the Premium or Powerhouse plan.

Note: If your scheduler is set to detect your client's time zone and something isn't working as expected, check the time zone settings for the client's browser and device.

Set different time zones for individual calendars

Users on the Premium or Powerhouse plan can add more than one calendar, and set a different time zone for each calendar. Other users have one time zone for all calendars. To set a different time zone for each calendar:

1. In Acuity, click Availability.
2. Find the calendar you want to edit and click Calendar settings.
3. Click the Time zone dropdown menu and select a different time zone, then click Save.

Note: If you set different time zones for individual calendars and use the class template, your main scheduler will default to your business’s time zone. To use the class template with calendar-specific time zones, embed or link to the scheduler for a specific calendar instead.

How time zones work in Acuity

All notifications to staff automatically use the business time zone. If the client has chosen a different time zone, all notifications to clients use the client time zone. This ensures everyone shows up at the same time.

When you update the time zone on your calendars, existing appointments are automatically translated to the new time zone. For example, if your business is in Eastern Time and your calendar is updated to Central Time, an appointment originally booked at 9:00 AM ET would be moved to 8:00 AM CT.

When clients book appointments

When a client schedules an appointment, they can click a button on the confirmation page to add the event to their outside calendar, such as Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCloud.

When the event is added to their calendar, it will display translated into their calendar’s time zone. So if the appointment is at 9:00 AM ET, but they view the appointment on a calendar set to Central Time, the appointment will show up at 8:00 AM CT.

When you book appointments for clients

When booking on your clients' behalf, you choose the client's time zone. The Client's Time Zone field appears above the Date and Time fields. If you're booking from the Calendar panel, the time zone will default to your business time zone. If you're booking from the client list, the time zone will default to the time zone of the most recent appointment in the client's profile.

Daylight savings time in Acuity

Acuity automatically adjusts for daylight savings time based on you or your clients' time zones. Please don’t manually change appointment times to account for daylight savings shifts.

This includes for areas that don't observe daylight savings time, such as much of Arizona. If your business is in a location that doesn't observe daylight savings time, select that location as your time zone in your settings. For example, if your business is based in Arizona, select (GMT-7:00 Arizona Time) from the dropdown menu. 

If you think Acuity has made a daylight savings time-related mistake:

• Check if a wrong-looking time could be caused by only one side using daylight saving time. In the United States, daylight saving time isn’t observed in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or Arizona outside of the Navajo Nation. Globally, many nations don't use daylight savings time or use it only in some areas. If only one of you is using daylight saving time, Acuity will still correctly adjust appointment times. However, times on your end will match with different times on the client's end than they did before the daylight savings time shift.
• Check that your time zone is set correctly using the instructions in this guide. If you have multiple calendars, check that all of them are set to your time zone.
• Check that your client's time zone is set correctly by clicking the appointment to open the appointment details. If the client made a mistake during booking, cancel the appointment and rebook. It's not possible to update the client's time zone.
• If you're viewing the appointment in a third-party calendar app that syncs with Acuity, check the time zone settings on the calendar app.