Timezones

Every part of WooCommerce Appointments converts appointment times for the person viewing them — customers, staff, and admins can be in different cities without manual timezone math.

Before you begin

How it works

Three levels work together: site timezone (WordPress → Settings → General) for storage and availability logic, customer timezone (booking form or My Account), and staff timezone (user profile). Each viewer sees times in their own zone.

What you need

• WordPress → Settings → General timezone set before you create products — Global settings
• For Google Calendar sync, match Google Calendar timezone to the site — Google Calendar

You are ready when

1. ✅ Site timezone matches your primary business location
2. ✅ A test booking shows the expected time on the storefront and in Appointments → Calendar
3. ✅ Staff with different timezones enter availability in their local hours (see Staff timezone)

Site-wide timezone support (5.3+)

Timezone display is enabled site-wide by default (wc_appointments_timezone_support_enabled). The per-product Customer timezones checkbox was removed in 5.3.11.

Disable site-wide support:

add_filter( 'wc_appointments_timezone_support_enabled', '__return_false' );

To hide timezone UI while keeping internal support, use woocommerce_appointments_show_timezone — see Disabling timezone display.

Where to add code

Add filters in your child theme's functions.php or a small site-specific plugin — not in the plugin files (updates will overwrite them). See Where to add code.

Three timezone levels

Level	Where it's set	What it does
Site timezone	WordPress → Settings → General	Storage, availability calculations, fallback display
Customer timezone	Booking form picker or My Account	Slots and appointment times in the customer's zone
Staff timezone	User profile → Staff Details	Staff schedule and availability rules in local time

Setting up timezones

Site (store) timezone

Set in WordPress → Settings → General. Choose the timezone that matches your primary business location. See Global settings.

Timezone dropdown

Wherever the plugin shows a timezone picker (staff profile, My Account, booking form):

• City + abbreviation — e.g. New York — ET
• Hover tooltip — full identifier, e.g. Timezone: America/New_York - ET
• Default — Default (ET) follows the site timezone dynamically
• Search — find timezones by city name

Browser detection

On staff profile and My Account → Account Details, Use my current timezone appears when the browser timezone differs from the selected value.

Customer timezone

My Account preference

Logged-in customers save a preference under Appointment Timezone:

• Default — follows the site timezone
• Specific timezone — any value from the dropdown

Resolution order when booking:

1. Posted timezone from the booking form (wc_appointments_field_timezone)
2. Saved My Account preference (wc_appointments_timezone user meta)
3. display_timezone from date picker AJAX
4. Session cookie from the form picker (appointments_time_zone)
5. Site timezone (fallback)

tip

Most customers need no change — the booking form auto-detects browser timezone.

Booking form

For minute- or hour-based products, a selection info row sits between the calendar and time slots:

• Right side shows the current abbreviation (e.g. ET) as a clickable link
• Click to open the full timezone dropdown
• All slots convert to the selected timezone

When the customer picks a zone different from the site, times shift accordingly (e.g. 15:00 CET → 9:00 AM ET).

For logged-in users (including staff booking on the storefront), changing timezone from the form also updates wc_appointments_timezone user meta (5.3.0+).

Cart, checkout, and My Account

• Cart / checkout — appointment time with abbreviation when customer zone ≠ site zone
• My Account → Appointments — When column includes abbreviation when zones differ

Staff timezone

Set staff timezone

Users → Profile → Staff Details → Timezone:

1. Pick a timezone or keep Default (site timezone)
2. Use Use my current timezone when the browser differs

Availability rules in staff's timezone

When staff timezone ≠ site timezone:

• A note above the rules table: "Times are shown in timezone: CET"
• Staff enter rules in local time — Monday 9:00–17:00 means 9–5 in their zone
• On save, the plugin converts to site timezone for storage
• Customers see correct slots after staff → site → customer conversion

Staff always work in their own local time.

Where timezones appear

Admin calendar — appointment panel (view)

In view mode, the Customer section shows:

• Timezone label next to the customer name — e.g. New York (ET)
• Hover for local time and offset relative to you — e.g. "New York (ET) — Jan 15, 2:00 PM (6h behind)"

The label appears only when the customer timezone differs from yours (not necessarily the site timezone).

Classic appointment edit screen

Appointments → Edit:

• Date/Time heading shows your abbreviation; fields are in your timezone
• Staff labels show staff abbreviations when their zone differs from yours
• Customer's Timezone row when customer ≠ your zone
• Booking Timezone row when the original booking zone differs from the customer's current account preference

Email notifications

All email notifications are timezone-aware (5.2.0+):

Recipient	Date/time shown
Admin / staff	Recipient's timezone
Customer	Customer's timezone

Admin/staff emails add Customer's Timezone and Staff timezone rows when those zones differ from the recipient's. Multiple staff in different zones → recipients grouped by timezone, each email in their local time.

Order details

Thank-you page, order emails, My Account → Orders, and admin order view show:

• When — with abbreviation when viewer zone ≠ site
• Staff — abbreviation when staff zone ≠ viewer
• Customer's Timezone — admin context only

List tables

• My Account → Appointments — abbreviation on When for time-based appointments
• Admin appointments list — abbreviation when appointment time differs from admin user's zone

Calendar unavailable overlay

In Week and Day views, unavailable blocks convert to the filtered staff member's timezone so blocked times match what they configured.

Hover tooltips

Where	Visible text	Hover tooltip
Dropdown options	New York — ET	Timezone: America/New_York - ET
Date/Time heading (meta box)	CET	Timezone: Europe/Berlin - CET
Customer timezone	New York (ET)	New York (ET) — Jan 15, 2:00 PM (6h behind)
Staff timezone	Tokyo (JST)	Tokyo (JST) — Jan 16, 12:00 AM (8h ahead)
List / order summary	ET	Timezone: America/New_York - ET

Customer and staff tooltips show where, when (local date/time), and offset from you. Half-hour offsets (e.g. India UTC+5:30) display correctly.

Booking flow (end to end)

1. Customer visits the form — browser timezone detected; session cookie set
2. Slots shown in customer timezone (site → customer conversion)
3. Selected slot stored in site timezone; cart shows customer time + abbreviation
4. Checkout creates appointment; customer timezone saved as metadata
5. Admin email — date in admin timezone; customer timezone row when different
6. Staff opens calendar — appointment at correct local time; panel shows customer tooltip
7. Customer checks My Account — time in their timezone

Creation timezone metadata

On create, the plugin stores the site timezone as _creation_tz so conversions stay accurate if the site timezone changes later or across DST transitions.

Disabling timezone display

For single-timezone businesses, hide all timezone UI with woocommerce_appointments_show_timezone:

add_filter( 'woocommerce_appointments_show_timezone', '__return_false', 10, 3 );

When disabled:

• Frontend — no picker, no abbreviations in cart or My Account
• Admin — no profile timezone section, no abbreviations in lists or meta boxes
• Emails — dates without abbreviations

You can disable selectively (frontend only, admin only, or per user). See Developers for scope; full filter reference after developer login.

Google Calendar and timezone

Google Calendar sync always uses the WordPress site timezone when calling the Google API. The same instant syncs correctly regardless of this filter. Set the connected Google Calendar timezone to match the site for predictable clock times.

Related

• Global settings — site timezone and formats
• Availability rules — staff rules in local time
• Email notifications — timezone-aware emails
• Google Calendar sync — outbound sync uses site timezone