A punch that reads 9:00 on the wall clock might not read exactly 9:00 everywhere in Odoo-and that is often normal.
Overview
Your badge reader shows “local wall time”-what people expect when they arrive. Odoo stores and shows times in a way that fits calendars, reports, and other apps across regions. Between eTimeOffice, the internet link, and Odoo’s own time zone for each user, small shifts of an hour or a few minutes can appear even when the underlying punch is the same event.
How it works
Think of three layers: what the device recorded, how eTimeOffice sends that day and time in the daily download, and how Odoo displays stored values in each user’s profile time zone. If any layer uses a different regional assumption, managers may see a number that looks “rounded” or shifted compared with the machine’s display.
Step-by-step guide
- When an employee asks “why does Odoo say 8:30 but the clock said 9:00?”, first confirm which date the row belongs to-midnight boundaries sometimes move the calendar day.
- Compare the same punch in eTimeOffice’s own report and in Odoo; if both match each other but not the wall clock, the answer usually lies in how the device was configured.
- If Odoo and eTimeOffice disagree with each other, open a ticket with IT and include the employee code and date-do not try to hand-edit stored times unless your policy allows it.
- Ask IT to verify the company’s default time zone in Odoo and the user’s personal time zone preference.
Fields table
| Field name | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Check In / Check Out (attendance row) |
The stored punch moments Odoo uses for hours and reports. |
May display with offset from raw device LCD |
Attendance Date |
Calendar day the row belongs to-can differ from “felt like night shift” cases. |
Night shift crossing midnight |
User time zone (Odoo preference) |
How a signed-in user sees many datetime fields across Odoo. |
Europe/Berlin vs Asia/Kolkata |
Field explanations
Check In / Check Out
Trust these for payroll once IT confirms the integration; they are the official stored values after sync.
Attendance Date
Helpful when a shift starts before midnight but ends after; the row may sit on the date your policy expects or the date IT configured.
User time zone
Two managers in different countries can see different clock strings for the same stored instant-neither is necessarily “wrong.”
Tip: For month-end disputes, always compare three things: device printout, eTimeOffice web report, and Odoo-then let HR and IT agree which source is authoritative for your policy.
Common mistakes
- Assuming the badge LCD is the “official” value when contracts say the cloud system is the record of truth.
- Panicking over a one-hour gap exactly at daylight-saving change weeks-those weeks deserve an IT check before editing data.
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