Calendar Reminders & Time Zones

Since Central only see’s clients in the local region, we send out all calendar reminders for clients as a local time. Many clients use Gmail’s calendar and email to receive these reminders. Google Calendar always saves events to the calendar as a Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) regardless of what time zone the event information is received in. Depending on day light savings time, UTC time is 4 to 5 hours off from our local time. In many cases when a calendar or email map is not sure what time zone you are in, it will default to showing you the UTC version of the time. This has caused a lot of confusion for clients who think their appointment is at a much later time than it really is.

A few things to look out for:

  • Does the date and time of the appointment say UTC next to it? If so, then the time shown will be off by 4 or 5 hours.
  • Does the time match the time in the description of the event. The body of the reminder email will also state the time of the appointment and is not changed by the calendar app, so should always be correct.

How do to fix this issue:

  • If you use Google Calendar you can set the default time zone from the website.
    • On your computer, open Google Calendar.
    • In the top right, click Settings Settings  Settings.
    • In “Time Zone,” click Primary time zone Down arrow  choose your time zone.
  • More detailed information about Google Calendar and time zones can be found at: Use Google Calendar in different time zones