Time Zone Settings

When you configure the application, it's possible to set different time zones for users and for resources. These time zones are used in different contexts on different pages. Here’s an overview of how time zones are displayed throughout Oracle Field Service for mobile workers and dispatchers.

Today's Date

The time zone of the currently logged in user is used when determining today's date. Let’s say it's 1:00 PM, Jun 10 in a UTC+00:00 time zone. If you sign in as a user who's in UTC+12:00 time zone, after logging in you see that the current date is set to Jun 11. This is because, in the user's time zone it's already 01:00 AM, Jun 11.

Where is it Used?

Today's date is used as the initial date on these pages in Oracle Field Service Core Application: Activities, Offline synchronization, Dashboard, and Print route. For example, on the "Activities" page, it is the date for which the activities are shown after you log in to the application. You can change the date on these pages to see the information for another date. Nevertheless, when you click the date field, the calendar widget shows you today's date in light blue color. This screenshot shows the calendar with the current date highlighted:

The same behavior is present in Oracle Field Service Mobile for Android and iOS. When a field resource logs in, today's date is marked with light red color on the date selection panel in the header, as shown in this screenshot:

When a field manager looks at the Calendars page in Oracle Field Service Mobile for Android and iOS, then today's date is marked in light red, as shown in this screenshot:

The same date is used in Oracle Field Service Core Application when searching for activities "starting today".

Current Date of the Resource

The current date of the resource is always determined in the time zone of the resource. You can activate the route and start an activity only on the current date of the resource's time zone.

Changing Past Activities

Every instance has a specific time when all the data that is related to the previous day is frozen and can't be changed any more. This time is configured in the Overnight work section on Business Rules, shown in this screenshot:

For example, you have configured that the working time is 5 hours since midnight in the Eastern time zone. This means that at 5:00 AM in the Eastern time zone all data for the previous day becomes frozen.

Important: If you configure an instance to use in several time zones, you must set the time zone on Business Rules to the most "western" time zone. If the work is performed several hours after midnight in this most "western" time zone, then you must also specify the number of hours after midnight.

Time View in Oracle Field Service Core Application

Time view displays aggregated information for the hierarchy of resources. The information is presented in the same time zone to look consistent on the time line. The time zone is determined as the time zone of the resource selected in the resource tree on the left of the page. The current time, which is shown as a red vertical line is also in the time zone of the selected resource, shown in this screenshot:

Note: The only exceptions are the resource hint, activity hint, and activity label. Information on the resource hint is displayed in the time zone of the resource this hint belongs to. Information on the activity hint and activity label is displayed according to the rules described in the Activity related information section later in the topic.

Manage page in Oracle Field Service Mobile for Android and iOS

The Manage page in Oracle Field Service Mobile for Android and iOS shows the information similar to the Time view. The difference is that there is no resource selected in the installed app. The information is shown for the list of resources identified as a group, and the group is configured by a user. Since it is not possible to identify which resource time zone must be used as the primary time zone, the time zone of the currently logged in user is used instead.

Note:

• The only exceptions are the resource hint, activity hint, and activity label. Information on the resource hint displays in the time zone of the resource this hint belongs to. Information on the activity hint and activity label displays according to the rules described in the Activity related information section later in the topic.

• When a user opens the non-scheduled or non-ordered activities on the right of the page, the activity identifier shows information according to the rules described in the Activity related information section later in the topic.

Organizations with Multiple Time Zones

If your organization operates in multiple time zones, it is important that you configure both, the mobile worker and activity time zones correctly. Configuring these time zones is even more important if they are different. A mobile worker sees all the data in their own time zone, but when the activity (customer) is in a different time zone, both times are shown as appropriate. The activity time zone is used for notifications and can be used in APIs (for example, for sending messages). Typically, the time zone of a physical location is used for notifications, but you may use your preferred time zone, such as your headquarters time zone or any other in which you prefer to get notifications.

Resource related information

Information that is related to a resource and the resource’s route is entered in the resource's time zone. It includes:

• Route Status (queue_status), includes the time when the route was activated

• Reactivated (reactivated)

• Resource working hours (calendar)

• Resource on-call hours (oncall_calendar)

Time view shows this information differently in Oracle Field Service Core Application and Oracle Field Service Mobile for Android and iOS. See the earlier sections for more details.

Activity Related Information

Time related information on an activity is displayed and entered in the time zone of the resource for which the activity is assigned. This information includes:

• Start (ETA)

• End (end_time)

• Start - End (eta_end_time)

• Delivery window (delivery_window)

• Activity Time of Booking (atime_of_booking)

• Activity Time of Assignment (atime_of_assignment)

The only exceptions are:

• Time slot or service window (depending on what is used for the particular activity type)

• SLA window

These properties are either in the resource time zone or in the customer time zone. It depends on the SLA and Service window use customer time zone field set on the activity type. Time view shows this information differently in Oracle Field Service Core Application and Oracle Field Service Mobile for Android and iOS. See the earlier sections for more details.

User related information

All user related information is shown in the time zone of the user. It includes:

• When the user was registered

• When the user was updated

• When the user logged in last time

• When the user changed the password

• Date and time till when the user is blocked

Collaboration

Each message in Collaboration includes the time when it was sent. This time is shown in the time zone of the currently logged in user.