Use location zones
Choose `America/New_York` when a participant follows New York civil time. A label such as EST is ambiguous and may imply a fixed UTC−05:00 offset even while the city observes UTC−04:00. IANA names also distinguish places that share an offset today but have different histories or future rules. The planner validates each entry and resolves aliases to the canonical identifier exposed by the browser.
Transitions do not happen together
The United States and Europe generally change clocks on different dates, creating weeks when their usual gap is one hour different. Southern Hemisphere seasons run in the opposite part of the year, and many locations do not change clocks at all. Always choose the actual meeting date. For a later occurrence, rerun the date instead of adding a memorized number of hours to the first result.
Some local times do not exist
During spring-forward, a range of wall-clock labels is skipped; a local time such as 02:30 may not exist. During fall-back, a label such as 01:30 can occur twice with different UTC offsets. The planner scans real UTC instants rather than manufacturing local labels, so skipped values are absent and repeated values remain distinct candidates. It also warns when an offset transition occurs during the reference day.
Recheck recurring meetings
A generated ICS file contains one UTC-anchored occurrence and deliberately omits recurrence. A calendar recurrence can be defined relative to the organizer's zone or as a fixed instant, producing different local behavior for others. Review the next few occurrences in every participant's calendar and recheck near known transition seasons. If fairness matters, decide whether the organizer's clock time or a rotation of inconvenience should remain stable.
Understand the reference-day scan
Candidates are generated every 30 real minutes from local midnight to the next local midnight in the first zone. A spring-forward date can therefore contain 46 candidates instead of 48, while a fall-back date can contain 50. That difference is evidence of the local day's actual UTC span, not a missing or duplicated computation. Meeting durations remain real elapsed minutes even when a displayed wall clock jumps.
Troubleshoot a disputed conversion
Confirm that everyone entered a location zone rather than a convenient fixed offset, then compare the numeric GMT offset shown beside each local result. Check the date in the first zone and watch for a different date elsewhere. If two devices disagree, their time-zone databases may differ; update the browser or verify with the destination calendar and an authoritative local source. Political rule changes announced after a browser release may not yet be represented.