GuidesPower Automate time zones: dates off by hours
Power Automate
Power Automate time zones: dates off by hours
Dates that are off by a few hours almost always mean a UTC vs local time-zone mismatch. Convert explicitly and store UTC.
Why dates shift
Power Automate works in UTC by default (utcNow(), trigger timestamps). When you display or compare against a local value without converting, you get an offset equal to your time-zone difference.
How to fix it
- 1Convert for display with convertTimeZone(utcNow(), "UTC", "Romance Standard Time", "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm") (use your zone name).
- 2Store and compare in UTC; only convert to local at the very edge (display, email body).
- 3When parsing user-entered dates, be explicit about the source zone before converting to UTC.
Tip
Keep one rule across the flow: compute and store in UTC, convert only for human-facing output. Mixing local and UTC mid-flow is what creates the off-by-hours bugs.