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Overview

This article will explain how Datetime fields work in Dynamics 365 and how North52's Functions interact with them. 

For this explanation, the following scenario is used:

  1. A user in a New York timezone logs a Task into a Datetime field
  2. A user in the Los Angles timezone reviews the Task
  3. A user in the London timezone also reviews the Task

This scenario will be show with all three different types of Datetime fields - User Local, Date Only and Timezone Independent

User Local

When the behavior of the Datetime field is User Local, the values are displayed in the User's local time. Whenever a User opens a record, Microsoft translates what they see to the correct timezone based on the User's settings. 

This is the most common chosen behavior for Datetime fields in Dynamics 365:

New York User

Los Angles User

London User


 
Note: Microsoft Dynamics stores the UTC version of the Datetime in the database. This value can be retrieved using tools like XrmToolbox.  In the above example, the value is stored as 30/06/2020 14:00

Date Only

When the behavior of the Datetime field is set to Date Only, field values are displayed with no time zone conversion.

The time portion of the value will always be 12:00 A.M. 

New York User

Los Angles User

London User

Note: Microsoft Dynamics stores the UTC version of the Datetime in the database. This value can be retrieved using tools like XrmToolbox. In the above example, the value is stored as 30/06/2020 12:00

Time Zone Independent

 When the behavior of the Datetime field is Time-Zone Independent, field values are displayed with no time zone conversion. 


New York User

Los Angles User

London User

Note: Microsoft Dynamics stores the UTC version of the Datetime in the database. This value can be retrieved using tools like XrmToolbox. In the above example, the value is stored as 07/07/2020 08:00