Understanding system and non‑system date fields

Fields with dates can be divided into two different types: system date field and non-system date field.

A system date field is automatically set by the system. System dates always appear in the UI along with time and the time zone, for example, "Feb 12, 2026, 12:49:34 AM EST." In the Task View, you might see these dates in the Admin tab or Task tab with different labels like "Creation Date", "Last Modification Date", etc., in the Activity tab with the label "Date and time," and so on.

A non-system date field is set by users in the UI. Non-system dates appear in the UI in a format that doesn't include the time and time zone, for example, "12/02/2013." In the Task View, you might see these dates in the Task tab with different labels like "Hire Date" in an Employee object, "Due Date" in an Action Item object, and so on.

By default, non-system date fields are displayed in the OpenPages® server's time zone. An administrators might set it to convert to the user's time zone. In that case, when a user saves a date, it's converted from their time zone to the server's time zone before being saved. When a user in another time zone views the date, the date is converted from the server's time zone to the viewer's time zone. If you're unsure whether time zone conversion is enabled or not, contact your administrator.

Note: When creating filters that include dates, the system interprets dates as being in the end user’s time zone if the conversion setting is applied. If the conversion setting is not applied, dates are interpreted as being in the server’s time zone. This is true for both system and non‑system date fields.