Dates are formatting in 2 different ways on the same sheet

Lindsay L

Is this a Smartsheets bug?

My formula is simply concatenating the date with the time. This seems to happen randomly when smartsheets updates itself, and it fixes itself only when I re-save the sheet.

Our Windows OS date settings are set to American format mm/dd/yyyy, but our smartsheets are set as dd/mm/yy

Is there any way to get around this? It is unlikely we will be able to change either of these settings. I don't care which setting we use as long as it is consistent through the entire sheet.

It's actually impacting my other formulas, like yesterday one of the dates was 02/12/25 (as December 2025!) so when calculating days between 2 dates it is wildly off.

Edit: And all dates are set to "Regional - Default" from the little Calendar icon.

Isaac A.

Hi @Lindsay L!

To address your original question, this behavior isn’t a bug but rather how Smartsheet handles time zones and regional settings. After testing, I’ve found that if multiple users are working on the same sheet, the display value aligns with the time zone of the last person who accessed it. This could be the cause of the formatting inconsistencies you’re seeing.

According to our help center article Troubleshooting: How Smartsheet handles time zones, system columns always use UTC in the back-end, while the displayed values adjust based on the time zone of the last user who accessed the sheet.

To maintain consistency, I recommend ensuring that all users collaborating on the sheet have the same regional preferences. Otherwise, the sheet will continue displaying dates based on the last user’s settings.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,
Isaac.

Lindsay L

I have found a workaround. Although it's not ideal and I really am hoping there is something better we can do…

There needs to be a better way to do this..

=IF(DAY([LATEST DATES / TIMES]6) <= 9, "0" + DAY([LATEST DATES / TIMES]6), DAY([LATEST DATES / TIMES]6)) + "/" + IF(MONTH([LATEST DATES / TIMES]6) <= 9, "0" + MONTH([LATEST DATES / TIMES]6) + "/" + RIGHT(YEAR([LATEST DATES / TIMES]6), 2) + " " + [LATEST DATES / TIMES]8)

The result:

Paul Newcome

Quick note on the zero filling to make the day and month numbers two digits.

RIGHT("0" + DAY([LATEST DATES / TIMES]6), 2)

will completely replace the IF statement and both outputs you currently have.

I know it doesn't solve the original problem, but it does make zero filling a little more efficient for future use.

Isaac A.

Hi @Lindsay L!

To address your original question, this behavior isn’t a bug but rather how Smartsheet handles time zones and regional settings. After testing, I’ve found that if multiple users are working on the same sheet, the display value aligns with the time zone of the last person who accessed it. This could be the cause of the formatting inconsistencies you’re seeing.

According to our help center article Troubleshooting: How Smartsheet handles time zones, system columns always use UTC in the back-end, while the displayed values adjust based on the time zone of the last user who accessed the sheet.

To maintain consistency, I recommend ensuring that all users collaborating on the sheet have the same regional preferences. Otherwise, the sheet will continue displaying dates based on the last user’s settings.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,
Isaac.

Lindsay L

Paul Newcome

Feb 14, 2025

Quick note on the zero filling to make the day and month numbers two digits.

RIGHT("0" + DAY([LATEST DATES / TIMES]6), 2)

will completely replace the IF statement and both outputs you currently have.

I know it doesn't solve the original problem, but it does make zero filling a little more efficient for future use.

Smart! Thanks! I'll give that a shot.