Time and timezones

The product stores every time in UTC

The product converts a stored time to your own timezone before it shows the time. Two people who read the same row see the same order of events, and only the clock time differs. The format is fixed: the day, a short month, the year, and a 24-hour clock. For example, 21 Sept 2026, 13:05 for a moment, and 21 Sept 2026 for a date.

Seven screens use this format. Four need Manage the organization, two need View, and one needs Manage the project. So most people never meet them all.

• The Activity screen, which needs Manage the organization. See The activity feed.
• An invitation's Expires column on the Members screen. The invitation section is absent below Manage the organization. See Invitations.
• An override's date on the Overrides screen, which lists every override in the organization. The screen needs Manage the organization. Below that bundle the rail hides the link, and a typed address answers 404. See Project overrides.
• The billing period end, or the trial end, on the Billing screen, which needs Manage the organization. See Plans and billing.
• An item's History in the item panel, which needs View. See Backlog items.
• A team's assigned date on the project screen. Everybody who opens the project reads it. See Projects.
• A project override's date on the project screen. The override section is absent below Manage the project. See Project overrides.

Your own timezone

Needsmembership of the organization, nothing more

Your timezone belongs to your account, not to an organization. The product sets it to UTC when you create the account, and no screen changes it. There is no personal settings screen and no timezone field at signup. So every person sees times in UTC.

The Activity screen names the timezone in use in the line under its title: Times are shown in your own timezone (UTC). That screen needs Manage the organization. Below that bundle the rail hides the link, a typed address answers 404, and no screen states your timezone.

Absolute times, not relative ones

Every time on a screen is absolute. The product does not show a relative time such as "two hours ago" anywhere. Two places show a time in UTC and say so.

• The Past imports list on the project screen shows each import's time with the word UTC after it. See Importing a backlog.
• When the product accepts a question, it writes the question into the item's description with a UTC stamp. The line reads Question from Ada, 21 Sept 2026, 13:05 UTC:. See Backlog items.

The organization timezone

NeedsManage the organization org_manage

The organization has one timezone, on the Organization settings screen in the row Timezone. Below Manage the organization the rail hides Settings, and a typed address answers 404. The row reads New teams start in this timezone. Existing teams keep their own — changing this never moves a sprint boundary. Every date you see is shown in your own timezone regardless.

The organization timezone has two uses, and neither one shows a date. When somebody creates a Scrum Team, the product copies this timezone onto the new team at that moment. After that the team owns its own copy. A later change here reaches no existing team and moves no sprint. The product also uses this timezone to pick the start Monday of a sprint that has no team.

1. Open Settings in the organization rail.
2. Type a timezone name into Timezone.
3. Click Save changes.

The New Scrum Team button is on the Scrum Teams screen, which Teams in the organization rail opens. The dialog has no timezone field. Its hint states the timezone the team starts in, for example The team starts in Europe/London, the organization’s zone, which anchors its sprint boundaries. Team settings can change it afterwards. See Organizations and Scrum Teams.

The team timezone

NeedsView view

Every Scrum Team owns one timezone. Every member reads it on the Scrum Teams list and on the team's own screen, in the row Timezone. Only a person with Manage the organization changes it. Below that bundle the field does not accept a change, and Save changes is absent. The row reads Anchors this team’s sprint boundaries — when a sprint’s Monday starts and its final Friday ends. It is not a display preference; every date you see is shown in your own timezone regardless. and Set from the organization’s timezone when the team was created. Changing the organization’s does not change this one.

1. Open Teams in the organization rail.
2. Click the team.
3. Type a timezone name into Timezone.
4. Click Save changes.

The product uses the team timezone for sprint dates only. It never uses the team timezone to show a date. The timezone decides three things about every sprint the team owns.

• Which Monday a new sprint starts on. For a team with no sprint, the product takes the next Monday in the team's timezone, and today counts if today is a Monday there. For a team that already owns a sprint, the product takes the Monday after that sprint's final Friday. It uses the later of the two Mondays. The product ignores a Cancelled sprint when it finds the team's latest sprint.
• The two instants a sprint covers: 00:00:00 on its Monday and 23:59:59 on its final Friday, by the team's clock.
• When the hourly job acts. From 00:00:00 on the Saturday after the final Friday, the next run moves an Active sprint to Ended. From 00:00:00 on the start Monday, the next run activates a Plan complete sprint.

The New sprint button sends no date. No screen lets a person choose the Monday. See Sprints.

A sprint card shows its dates as plain dates, for example 2026-09-07 → 2026-09-18. The board header shows the same two dates after the sprint number and the team name, with an en dash between them. These are the team's dates. The product does not convert a sprint date to your timezone. See The board and the Daily Scrum.

A sprint with no team has no timezone of its own. The product picks its start Monday in the organization timezone, and the hourly job never moves the sprint.

Daylight saving time

The boundaries follow the team's clock. A sprint starts at 00:00:00 on its Monday and ends at 23:59:59 on its final Friday, whatever the clocks do between the two. So a sprint that crosses a daylight saving change is one hour longer or one hour shorter.

The calendar file

NeedsView view

A session with a scheduled start and end has a calendar file. Its title is the project key, the sprint number and the kind of session. A session with no sprint, such as a Backlog Refinement, gets the key and the kind only. The file names the team and the facilitator when the session has them, and it links to the Board screen. A Daily Scrum also carries the line Timeboxed to 15 minutes. The file stores its times in UTC.

The file carries the session's own identifier, so a second import after a reschedule updates the entry your calendar already holds. It arrives under a fixed name, for example proj-sprint-3-retro.ics. The product marks a canceled session in the file, so a calendar that already holds the session can update it. A Sprint Closing has no scheduled window and no file.

No screen offers this file, and no screen gives a session a scheduled start or an end. So a session created in the product has no window and no file at all. Start Daily Scrum on the board creates a session with no window. The Sprint Review and Retrospective screens list sessions and create none. A request for the file of a session with no window answers This session has no scheduled window, so it has no calendar entry.

See Scrum Events, The board and the Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Retrospective.