Change the account time zone

By default, Sigma displays all date data in UTC. You can change this to display all time data according to your organization's preferred time zone using the Account time zone setting.

Requirements

• To change the account time zone, you must be assigned the Admin account type.

Select a time zone

1. Go to the Administration > Account > General Settings tab.
2. In the Time section, click Edit.
3. In the Account Timezone dropdown, select your time zone.

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If your desired time zone is not listed, contact your Account Manager or Support.

4. Click Save.

Time zone change considerations

After you change the account time zone, you can expect the following:

• Existing absolute date filters show the date range in the new time zone. For example, after switching from UTC to Americas/Los_Angeles, an absolute period originally defined as starting at 1/1/2021 0:00:00 is displayed as starting at 12/31/2020 16:00:00, the same time converted to PST. For a date during daylight savings time, like 7/1/2021 0:00:00, it is displayed as 6/30/2021 17:00:00.

• Existing relative date filters defined in days or less-granular units reflect the new time zone. The values for the date filters are shown the same way (e.g. 30 days ago), but the meaning changes (e.g. from midnight UTC 30 days ago to midnight Pacific Time 30 days ago).

• Date values passed in to workbook control values via the URL are parsed according to your account time zone. You can override this default behavior so that Sigma parses the date values as being in the UTC time zone by appending a Z to the timestamp in the URL. For more information, see Workbook control values in the URL.

• Materialized datasets do not update to the new time zone until refreshed. If you use materialized datasets, changing your account time zone might lead to temporary inconsistencies until all materializations are refreshed.

• Data stored in time zone aware columns is interpreted according to your account time zone and changes accordingly when you change the account time zone. For example, if you insert 1/1/2021 into a TIMESTAMP_TZ column in Snowflake using the UTC session time zone:

  • If your account time zone is set to UTC, Sigma displays it as 1/1/2021 00:00:00.
  • If your account time zone is set to Americas/Los_Angeles, the same timestamp displays as 12/31/2020 16:00:00.

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CSV files uploaded to Sigma use a time zone aware column to store time and date values. If you have previously uploaded a CSV file with a date column, it will not update to the new time zone unless the CSV is re-uploaded. Otherwise, it is converted to the same moment in absolute time for the new account time zone.

How Sigma displays date data

Sigma displays all date data according to your organization's account time zone. This has the following consequences:

• If a column in your data platform has time zone data, Sigma converts the timestamp to your organization’s time zone while preserving the moment in time. For example, a column stating the timestamp 2025-09-10 10:00:00.000 for the America/New_York time zone is converted to 2025-09-10 07:00:00.000 if your Sigma organization has the America/Los_Angeles account time zone.

• If a column in your data platform has no time zone, Sigma displays it in your organization’s time zone, leaving the timestamp unchanged. For example, a TIMESTAMP_NTZ column stating the timestamp 2025-09-10 00:00:00.000 preserves the timestamp as 2025-09-10 00:00:00.000 but adds your account time zone to the data.

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If you need to preserve the timestamp, Sigma recommends casting the column to a data type without a time zone, such as TIMESTAMP_NTZ, in your data platform. Alternatively, you can set your Sigma organization's time zone to match data from your data platform.

• When creating a warehouse view from a Sigma element, time zone handling can cause differences between the Sigma element and the warehouse view under the following circumstances:

  • The Sigma organization and connected data platform have different account time zones.
  • There is a filter set on a date column in the Sigma element.

  This is because Sigma creates timestamp filters using an absolute moment in time based on your account time zone, but reads the column using session time zone. Since session time zone differs between the data platform and Sigma, the filter selects for a different set of values in each location.

  Consider the following example scenario:

  • A record in your data platform in a TIMESTAMP_NTZ column has the timestamp 2025-09-28 21:00:00.000.
  • Your Sigma organization is set to the America/New_York time zone.
  • Your data platform is set to the America/Los_Angeles time zone.
  • You create a filter in Sigma for records on the date 2025-09-29.

  In Sigma, the record displays as 2025-09-28 21:00:00.000-4:00. But, after creating a warehouse view, it displays as 2025-09-28 21:00:00.000-7:00 in your data platform. In both Sigma and the data platform, the filter is for the absolute time range 2025-09-29T00:00:00.000000000-04:00 to 2025-09-29T23:59:59.999000000-04:00. In Sigma, this record does not meet the filter criteria. In the data platform, it does. To resolve this issue, set the Sigma account time zone to match your data platform.