We're expanding our operations to cover three regions: Eastern, Central, and Mountain time. From an operational perspective, I want to ensure our dispatchers in each region aren't creating scheduling conflicts when coordinating cross-regional technician assignments.
Specifically, I'm trying to understand:
1. How FieldPulse handles time zone display — is it user-local, or tied to a company default?
2. When a dispatcher in Eastern time schedules a job for a technician in Mountain time, which time zone drives the calendar and notification timing?
3. Are there safeguards to prevent double-booking when the "same" time slot spans different actual hours across zones?
We've identified this as a potential friction point before our January rollout and want to establish clear protocols now rather than troubleshoot in production. Any guidance on current behavior or recommended configuration would be appreciated.
sorry jumping in late — does this affect the mobile app too??
techs in mountain time see different job times than dispatchers in eastern??
had a call this morning where a guy insisted his phone said 8am and dispatch said 10am and everyone was confused
Hi Teresa — yes, exactly that scenario can happen. The mobile app displays times in the device's local time zone, so a technician with their phone set to Mountain Time will see 8:00 AM while an Eastern dispatcher sees 10:00 AM for the same job. Both are correct — same moment, different display.
What I typically see cause the confusion you described is when someone's device time zone is set incorrectly, or when a technician is traveling across zones and doesn't update their phone settings. The app doesn't "follow" the technician — it follows the device.
Quick check for your team:
Settings → General → Date & Time → Time Zone (iOS)
Settings → Date & Time → Time Zone (Android)
If the technician's phone is still on Eastern from travel, they'll see your company's time instead of local time. That's usually the culprit in "my phone says different" calls.
Want me to send over a quick field guide you can share with your techs?
Hi Teresa — yes, exactly that scenario can happen. The mobile app displays times in the device's local time zone, so a technician with their phone set to Mountain Time will see 8:00 AM while an Eastern dispatcher sees 10:00 AM for the same job. Both are correct — same moment, different display.
What I typically see cause the confusion you described is when someone's device time zone is set incorrectly, or when a technician is traveling across zones and doesn't update their phone settings. The app doesn't "follow" the technician — it follows the device.
Quick check for your team:
Settings → General → Date & Time → Time Zone (iOS)
Settings → Date & Time → Time Zone (Android)
If the technician's phone is still on Eastern from travel, they'll see your company's time instead of local time. That's usually the culprit in "my phone says different" calls.
Want me to send over a quick field guide you can share with your techs?
