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How time zones work on the calendar

The calendar always shows your clinic's local time, not the viewer's. Learn where the time zone is set and what clients see in emails.

Updated Aug 14, 2026

The calendar always shows appointments in the clinic's time zone — the zone of the location you're viewing — no matter where you or your device happen to be. A 2 PM booking at your New York location sits at 2 PM on the grid even if you're checking it from Los Angeles.

Which time zone does the calendar use?

Owneli resolves the display zone in this order:

PrioritySourceWhere it's set
1The active location's time zoneThe location editor
2The business defaultSettings → Defaults → Timezone
3Your browser's zoneFallback only

Appointments are stored as absolute moments in time, so nothing shifts when you change these settings — only how the grid labels the hours.

When you change the business default and your locations use a different zone, Owneli asks "Update location timezones?" so the calendar and the default stay in agreement. The location's zone is what the calendar actually follows.

What clients see

Clients always see the salon's local time — the time they should walk through your door:

  • Confirmation and reminder emails show the time in your location's zone with the zone label spelled out, e.g. "3:00 PM EDT".
  • The public booking page offers slots in the location's zone.
  • The manage-booking link shows the visit in the same zone.
  • Reminder SMS say "today" or "tomorrow" resolved in the clinic's zone at the moment of sending.

So a client booking your Toronto clinic from a phone set to London time still sees Toronto times — deliberately, because the appointment happens in Toronto.

Multiple locations

Each location carries its own time zone, and its calendar renders in it. One caveat: when you look at a client's history across locations, the times render in the zone of the location you're currently working in, not each visit's own location.

Common questions

The calendar shows the wrong times — what do I check?

Check the active location's time zone in the location editor first, then Settings → Defaults → Timezone. The location's zone wins.

Do clients in another time zone see their local time?

No — they see the salon's local time, labelled with the zone ("EDT"). That's the time to arrive, which is the number that matters.

If I change the time zone, do existing appointments move?

No. Appointments are stored as absolute moments; changing the zone only changes the labels on the grid and in future emails.

Keep reading

Related

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Find your way around the calendarThe five views, what the colours mean, and how to filter the grid down to what you actually need to see.Set up appointment remindersTurn on 48-hour, 24-hour and 3-hour appointment reminders by email and SMS, change their timing, and override them for one booking.Working with multiple locationsSwitch between sites, understand what is scoped to a location and what is shared across the business, and read the all-locations rollup.