date_to_utc()

Convert a wall-clock datetime to UTC. Record datetime fields are stored in UTC, so use this before writing a human-entered time into one.

Syntax

date_to_utc(datetime, timezone?)

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`datetime`	string	yes	A datetime in any format `strtotime` understands.
`timezone`	string	no	The source timezone (e.g. `America/New_York`). Defaults to the account owner's timezone.

Returns

The datetime in UTC as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS. A date-only input (no time) is returned unchanged.

Example

// Owner is in America/New_York; store 9am local as UTC.
$utc = date_to_utc("2026-06-12 09:00:00");
record_update("events", $record["_meta"]["id"], ["starts_at" => $utc]);

Example output

"2026-06-12 13:00:00"

Notes

Parsing is forgiving — any format strtotime accepts works. Throws if it can't parse the value.
The inverse is date_from_utc().