Video |

Tableau | Data prep | Tool strategy

Site specific timezone

Ever noticed your extract times don't match between desktop and server? Tableau 2020.3 finally fixes that with site-level time zones.

Tim Ngwena •12 August 2020 •1 min read •6 min watch •4K

Part ofTableau Server

Watch on YouTube

Tableau 2020.3 lets you set a site-level time zone for extracts so refresh and data times match your reporting region rather than the server's physical location
Use the NOW() function to return the current date and time, then change the date part to exact date to expose the full timestamp
The time zone setting lives at the very bottom of the site settings page in Tableau Online or Server
Changing the time zone has no effect until the extract is refreshed or the workbook is republished, because the extract has already captured the original timestamp
This built-in feature removes the need for old hacks like manual date offset calculations or time zone parameters in global organisations

0:00In 2020.3, Tableau have added the ability

0:05to add site level time zones to data

0:08extract

0:09so that they can reflect the accurate time

0:11in their respective extracts. It sounds

0:13like

0:13a bit of a weird concept, but essentially

0:15what used to happen is that you'd publish

0:18a desktop, let's say in London with an

0:20extract scheduled, but then the server

0:23itself or Tableau

0:24online would be in a different country, let

0:26's say the United States. And so the times

0:28that

0:29you'd get refreshes and the times that you

0:31'd get in the data set would be different

0:33because

0:33essentially the extract is being run in a

0:36different time zone. So the actual times

0:38that

0:38you get slightly off. So what they've

0:41actually done is they've added the ability

0:43to change

0:44that at a site level so that even though

0:46your server might be in, let's say America,

0:49you

0:49can actually set the UK time zone. And so

0:51the dates will match compared to what you

0:53're

0:53seeing on desktop versus server. To show

0:56you that I'm going to have to create a work

0:59book

1:00and then publish it up to my Tableau online

1:02instance, and then show you the difference

1:04in terms of time. So let's go ahead and do

1:06that. First thing I'm going to do is I'm

1:08just

1:08going to open a new sheet. And I'm going to

1:10go ahead and create a calculation. Now

1:12there's

1:12actually a function inside of Tableau that

1:15does this for you. If you just type in the

1:17term, now, you'll see that there's

1:19automatically a suggestion there to autocom

1:21plete. And this

1:22is basically just going to return the date

1:24and time right now. So let's just call this

1:26date time now. That's all we need. Hit

1:30apply and click OK. I'm also going to

1:33rename sheet

1:3416 to date time now. Okay. And then what we

1:38're going to do is we're going to drag this

1:41new

1:41calculation onto text to give us the date

1:44and time there. Now you can see here that

1:47it's actually giving me the year, not the

1:49full date and time. And so if you're

1:51familiar

1:51with Tableau, you'll know that this just

1:54needs us to change the definition of the

1:56date here

1:57by going down and choosing the exact date

1:59so that we can get the exact time. And you

2:01can see here I'm recording quite late here

2:03in the UK. It's 11 42 and 55 seconds. Let's

2:07see if we can get this feature and video

2:09done before midnight. Okay. So let's go

2:12ahead and

2:13publish this up to our Tableau server. I'm

2:15going to go ahead and just publish this

2:17specific

2:17sheet. I'm already signed into the Tableau

2:20server, so I'm not going to go through that

2:22step. But what I will do is I'll publish

2:24this up to the 2020.3 release. It's just

2:28called

2:28the regional workbook. I'm going to

2:30specifically target the sheet that I've

2:33just created, which

2:34is called date time now. So I'm going to

2:36hit none and just hit the date time now and

2:39then

2:39leave that as is. Now everything else is

2:41going to be embedded with the workbook, so

2:44it will

2:44just go up to the server and I'm going to

2:46hit publish. And as soon as that's done,

2:49what

2:49should happen is it should open up a window

2:52and we should actually see that particular

2:55sheet. Now, the thing to bear in mind here

2:58is that in my workbook, it says the time is

3:01now the fourth 23 42. This is the basic

3:04sort of time segments. Remember 11 42 55.

3:09If I

3:09then go back to the specific view and I'm

3:12just trying to get this up now, you can see

3:14that when I go in here, the time is 3 44.

3:18And the reason this is is because I've

3:22actually

3:23set the time zone differently on server. I

3:25've set it to Los Angeles, I believe. So let

3:28's

3:28go ahead and show you how to change that

3:31setting. We need to go over to the settings

3:33and at

3:34the very, very bottom, it's a new option

3:36that's been added to 2020.3 and that is

3:39this particular

3:40time zone. Okay, so I can actually choose

3:42the correct time zone and this time I'm

3:44going

3:45to look for London. I can never remember

3:47where London is in this really long list.

3:49It's obviously

3:50round about GMT plus zero. But yeah, there

3:54it is, London. Hit save. And so set time

3:58zone

3:58for extracts has been changed. The extract

4:00that's sitting inside of that workbook is

4:02now going to reflect the London time zone.

4:05Go back to my view, hit refresh, and you'll

4:08see nothing has changed. You're probably

4:11wondering, why is this what's going on here

4:14? Well, the

4:15issue is, is that the extract already

4:17captured the date and time. Okay, so we

4:19need to actually

4:20go back, go in here, hit server, hit

4:22publish, we're going to publish over the

4:25workbook.

4:26And when it actually takes this extract

4:28with it, it's going to have the correct

4:30time zone

4:30applied to it. So hit publish, hit yes. And

4:37this will simulate the extract being

4:39refreshed.

4:40Now when we look at this, this should now

4:42say the correct time. So it should match

4:44the

4:45UK time here, which is just before midnight

4:47. So let's go into that. And you can see now

4:50that's showing the correct time. And if I

4:52go back to the old one, which has just been

4:54refreshed and we hit refresh, now that says

4:57the correct time. So it's important to note

5:00that time zone change doesn't take place

5:03until you've actually triggered a refresh

5:05or the

5:05workbook has been manually updated or rep

5:08ublished up to reflect the refresh,

5:11essentially being

5:12tied to the time zone. So that's pretty

5:14much how the feature works. It's actually

5:15quite

5:16handy. You get this issue a lot, especially

5:18in global organizations where the time

5:20zones

5:21are slightly different or the reporting

5:23time zone is different, but the server

5:25itself,

5:25the server infrastructure is held in a

5:27different country. And so everyone has to

5:29do some weird

5:30sort of date calculations to make the time

5:32say the correct thing in the time zones

5:35that

5:35people are looking at it. Or you create

5:37some sort of parameter so people can

5:39essentially

5:39change their time zones so the time is

5:41always correct for them. And those are some

5:43of the

5:43hacks that you used to have to do to get

5:45around this. But now this is built into

5:46server. You

5:47don't have to do so much of that. And it's

5:49just automatically figured out for you. If

5:52you've enjoyed this video, be sure to check

5:55out some of the other videos on 2020.3. And

5:57keep forgetting how to say that 2020.3. We

6:00've got some great content on this release.

6:03And

6:03by all means check out some of the other

6:05videos on Tableau on the channel. And be

6:07sure to

6:07subscribe if you like the content. If you

6:09don't like the content, let us know what

6:11you'd

6:11like to see in the comments below.

Rollup

Tableau 2020.3 lets you set a site-level time zone for extracts, so refreshed data reflects the time zone you report in rather than wherever the server physically sits. This removes the old mismatch between what you see in Desktop and what shows up on Server.

Previously, if you published a workbook from one time zone (say London) to a server hosted in another (say the US), extract timestamps would reflect the server's location, not yours. Tim demonstrates this by building a simple timestamp view, publishing it, then correcting the mismatch with the new site setting.

The Breakdown

Why extract times used to mismatch 0:00

Before this feature, an extract's refresh time reflected the server's physical time zone rather than the time zone you actually work or report in, causing confusing discrepancies between Desktop and Server.
Build a live timestamp with NOW() 0:54

Create a calculation using the NOW() function to capture the current date and time, then change its date definition to exact date so the full timestamp displays rather than just the year. This gives you a visible way to compare Desktop time against Server time.
Publish the workbook to the server 2:11

Publish the sheet up to Tableau Online or Server as normal. At this point the extract captures whatever timestamp exists at publish time, using the server's current time zone setting.
Spot the mismatch on the published view 3:01

Compare the time shown in your local workbook against the time shown once published — if the server's time zone setting differs from yours, the published view will show a different time even though it's the same moment.
Set the correct time zone at site level 3:31

Go to the site settings in Tableau Online or Server and scroll to the very bottom, where the time zone option added in 2020.3 lives. Choose the time zone that matches your reporting region, not the server's physical location, and save.
Refresh or republish to apply it 4:05

Changing the time zone setting alone does nothing to existing extracts — you must trigger an actual refresh or republish the workbook so the extract is recaptured under the new time zone. This step is required; skipping it leaves the old, incorrect timestamp in place.
Confirm the corrected time 4:40

After republishing or refreshing, reopen the view to confirm the timestamp now matches your local time, proving the extract has picked up the new site-level setting.
Where this replaces old workarounds 5:12

Global organisations used to handle this with manual date offset calculations or time zone parameters so users could adjust displayed times themselves. This setting removes the need for those hacks by handling the correction automatically at the site level.

Worth Knowing

The time zone change has no retroactive effect on extracts already run — you must refresh or republish before the new setting takes effect.
The setting is easy to miss because it sits at the very bottom of the site settings page.
This is a site-level setting, so it affects how extracts on that site report time regardless of where the server infrastructure is physically hosted.

Use It When

Reach for this when your organisation's server infrastructure is hosted in a different time zone from where you and your stakeholders report, and you're tired of extract or refresh timestamps not matching what people expect to see.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

Transcription: On-device — NVIDIA Parakeet v3 for recent videos, OpenAI Whisper large-v3 for earlier ones. The transcript never leaves the machine or gets published.
Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

Model + prompt + video is everything you'd need to recreate a Rollup like this yourself. The one thing we don't share is the transcript.

Rights. The video and its transcript are the property of TN Media Ltd. Unauthorised use or download is prohibited. © TN Media Ltd.