Why do my date-based automations all seem to trigger at 5pm PST?

[Sterling_Kahn]

Hi there,

I currently use Airtable to automatically notify me at various dates along a user’s timeline:

IF(DATETIME_DIFF(TODAY(),{4w}, "days")>-1, IF({4w Email?},"✅", "❗"))

The Slack notifications always seem to generate at ~5pm PST – the end of my work day. I’d much rather have them generate in the morning.

1. Is this because Airtable’s date calculations work on GMT/UST?
2. Is there any way to change when this calculation occurs?
3. I understand the easier solution is to just make it trigger a day earlier - and I’m happy to do that - but the bothersome thing is getting multiple pings at the end of my work day when they’re liable to get ignored / forgotten.

[Chris-T]

Yes, I’m guessing Airtable is updating your 4w has passed? field at its midnight (7 hrs ahead of you).

Some better Airtable’r will probably have an idea how to work around it. Possibly a formula field that says

VALUE(DATETIME_FORMAT(SET_TIMEZONE(NOW(), ‘America/Los_Angeles’),‘H’))

that will return an integer between 0-23 (I think). Then you can have your automation condition on that number being between 6-9 or something to get it to fire in the morning PST.

Just my quick thoughts. Good luck.