Zansa › Answers › Integration and BI tools
Why do dates and time zones cause mismatched reports?
Systems record timestamps in different time zones and use different date fields, such as order date, payment date or invoice date. A sale near midnight can fall on different days in different systems, causing daily and monthly totals to disagree.
To avoid this:
- Store timestamps in UTC and convert to a business time zone for reporting.
- Choose which date represents a sale for each report and document it.
- Be careful with month-end cut-offs, where small timing differences move revenue between periods.
- Check financial year and week-start conventions.
When reconciling two systems, compare totals using the same date field and time zone first. Many unexplained differences disappear once dates are aligned.
Want this applied to your business? Zansa builds dashboards and forecasts for small and mid-sized companies worldwide. Start with a free intro call.
Book a call