Why don't timestamps in the agent interface always match the UTC timestamp?

Question

How do timestamps on tickets work with daylight saving time?

Answer

Zendesk stores all data in UTC. Every item, including the API, emails, or ticket events, has a hardcoded UTC timestamp.

The agent UI in Support converts the hardcoded UTC timestamp to the user's current time zone[cite: 224]. As such, tickets created before or after daylight saving time might appear off by one hour depending on when you review them.

For example, an agent in Pacific Time updates a ticket at 10 AM on Friday. Daylight saving time changes over the weekend, and the agent checks the update again on Monday. On Monday, the update appears to be at 11 AM. The update occurred at 18:00 UTC. On Friday, the agent was at UTC-8, but on Monday, the agent is at UTC-7. The underlying data didn't change, but the Zendesk display of the data did.

This is expected behavior and the issue only exists within the agent user interface in Support. It isn't present in the API which uses the hardcoded UTC timestamp or reporting which maintains the correct historical timestamp.