Your church's time zone

Your church’s time zone is the clock HoW reads your church’s times on: service times, event times, schedules, the website’s Live now block and the dates in your reports. Everyone who uses the staff dashboard can see it; only your church’s owner can change it, in Settings.

Where to see it

1. In the staff dashboard, open Home.
2. Your church’s card shows Church time zone, the zone and what time it is there now, such as “America/Chicago — 9:42 AM there now”. The time keeps itself up to date while the page is open.
3. Underneath, the owner sees Change it in Settings. Everyone else sees “Only the church owner can change this.” If the zone looks wrong, ask your church’s owner.

How to change it (the owner)

1. In the staff dashboard, open Settings.
2. Find Time zone. It shows the zone in force and what time it is there now.
3. Click the list and type part of a city or region, such as “Chicago” or “Denver”. Each zone shows its time now, so you can check you have the right one (“America/Chicago — 9:42 AM now”).
4. Choose the zone, then Change time zone.
5. Read the confirmation and choose Change time zone again. HoW says “Time zone changed” when it is done.

What changes, and what does not

• Follows the new zone at once: the website’s Live now block (your weekly service times are read on the new clock), the website’s dates and event times, schedules, and report date ranges. Event runs you add from now on are stepped in the new zone. The website catches up within 30 seconds.
• Stays at the same moment: events already on the calendar, scheduled website blocks, messages already scheduled and trial end dates are moments in time, and they stay at that moment. Their clock time moves by the difference: an event at 9:00 AM New York time reads 8:00 AM after a change to Chicago. If you are correcting a zone that was wrong from the start, check your upcoming events and scheduled blocks afterwards and move any that should keep their clock time.
• A campus with its own time zone keeps it. Only campuses that use the church’s zone follow the change.

Good to know

• Who can see it. Everyone who signs in to the staff dashboard: administrators, staff and every other role see it on Home, read-only.
• Who can change it. Only the church’s owner. Administrators cannot, and no custom role can be given this, whatever its levels. Anyone else who reaches Settings (such as DCX support in a session without this right) sees the zone with “Only the church owner can change this”.
• It is recorded. Every change is in your church’s audit log, with the old zone, the new one and who changed it.
• Choosing the same zone again changes nothing.
• DCX Logic support can change it for you if you call, but only inside a support session your church approves (see below).

What DCX Logic support can do

If you call, support can change the time zone for you. They ask for a support session that names this setting; your church’s owner approves it under Support access. Support writes down why they made the change, and that note, with the session, appears in your audit log. Outside an approved session, support cannot change it.

Coming from Planning Center

In Planning Center an Organization Administrator sets the time zone under Account settings → Organization → Localization, and each campus can have its own. HoW works the same way: the owner sets the church’s zone in Settings, everyone on staff sees it on Home, and a campus that is somewhere else keeps its own zone on its campus page.