Timezones in Ethnio 🕚 – Study, Ethnio User, Participant, etc

The timezone you use for your Ethnio account, the timezone of your team members, and the timezone of participants may all be different—let's review how to set this up in a way that fits both remote multi-timezone studies as well as locked in-person timezone studies.

Common problems with timezones and how to fix them

Timezones can be frustrating 🤪 We get it. That's the most important problem. If you're seeing timezones that don't match your expectations, or participants are receiving the wrong timezone in scheduling or other communication, please start with this list. We've tried to cover common use cases.

1️⃣ Study timezone is missing or wrong

Head to scheduling > calendar inside your screener or study and double-check the timezone is set correctly just above the calendar. Basically, the concept of a "Study" controls the timezone, and Ethnio user's can have any timezone they like and when they view or edit the study, it will not necessarily change the study timezone.

2️⃣ Locked timezone in scheduling questions isn't working right

If you're doing an in-person study, and you've locked the timezone in your scheduling question (more on that here), it's possible participants may have filled out your screener before that toggle was active. You'll have to re-submit their screener response with the new locked timezone in that case.

3️⃣ Timezone is missing in your profile

In certain cases, it's possible you have a blank timezone in your profile, which can cause the study timezone to be incorrect or missing. Head to account > profile and check your timezone is correct.

4️⃣ A participant has the wrong timezone

If only one or two participants receive the wrong timezone in their scheduling invites, it's possible they may have filled out your screener while traveling, accidentally selected the wrong timezone, or had daylight savings start or end. These are pretty common scenarios, but there's an easy way to identify this. Look for the little warning icon in their response or scheduling time that says timezone mismatch. If that's present, you'll want to contact the participant directly to verify what their correct timezone should be. If they made a mistake, you'll have to re-submit their screener and scheduling response with the correct timezone.

Additional Info

Please note that the account time zone is separate from the study/screener time zone and often differs. When team members create screeners in Ethnio, the screener time zone will default to the creator’s time zone.

Additionally, when a new user joins your team, Ethnio will prompt them to set their time zone during profile setup.