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Fix Microsoft Forms Timestamp One Hour Behind in Excel

Kushani Nimanthika Sep 30, 2026 868 views

Question details

User experiences a one-hour delay in Microsoft Forms submission timestamps when exported to Excel via Power Automate.

How to Fix Microsoft Forms Timestamp One Hour Behind in Excel

Product: Microsoft Excel
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Exporting Microsoft Forms responses to Excel using a Power Automate flow after a daylight saving time (DST) change.
Observed behavior: Timestamps in the resulting Excel spreadsheet are exactly one hour behind the actual form submission time.

Before you start

Verify the specific local time zone of your Microsoft 365 account and ensure you have edit access to the Power Automate flow managing the Forms-to-Excel data transfer.

Solution 1Recommended

Explicitly Convert Time Zone in Power Automate Flow

Add a "Convert time zone" action in your Power Automate flow to explicitly handle daylight saving time accurately before the data reaches Excel.

Power Automate defaults to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) for timestamps. During Daylight Saving Time (DST) shifts, a direct export to Excel often results in a one-hour offset. Explicitly converting the time zone within the flow ensures that the exact local time is passed to your Excel workbook.

Edit the Flow

Add Conversion Action

Click the '+' icon to insert a new step before the 'Add a row into a table' Excel action, and search for 'Convert time zone'.

Configure the Time Zone

Set the 'Base time' to the form's submission time. Select '(UTC) Coordinated Universal Time' as the Source time zone, and choose your local time zone as the Destination time zone.

Update the Excel Step

In your 'Add a row into a table' action, replace the original submission time dynamic content with the 'Converted time' output from the previous step.

Explicitly Convert Time Zone in Power Automate Flow

Formatting Tip: You can select a specific 'Format string' in the Convert time zone action (e.g., 'yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss') to ensure it perfectly matches your Excel column formatting.

Solution 2

Verify Regional Settings in SharePoint and Excel Online

Ensure that the regional settings of the environment hosting the Excel file are aligned with your local time zone.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my Excel timestamp exactly one hour off?

This usually happens because cloud services like Power Automate and Microsoft Forms record time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Without explicit conversion, your local daylight saving time changes will cause a one-hour offset in the final spreadsheet.

Can I fix the timestamp directly in Excel without using Power Automate?

Yes, you can add a formula column in Excel (e.g., '=A2+(1/24)') to manually add one hour to the imported timestamp. However, this requires manual adjustments or maintenance after every daylight saving time change.

Does this daylight saving issue resolve itself automatically?

No. If your automation flows do not explicitly account for daylight saving time using local regional settings or a time-zone conversion step, the timestamp offset will remain.

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