Excel Timezone Formula

To create an Excel timezone formula you need to know both the time zone you are in and the one you want to convert to. So lets say we want to convert the Brazilians listed times for upcoming World Cup matches to South African times so that we know when it will be televised.

The actual maths is quite easy. Subtract the match time zone from the time zone I want to watch in

Eg.

South Africa is UTC + 2
Brazil for the world cup is UTC – 3

I want to know when, in South Africa, will I be able to watch the soccer match in Brazil. I take my time ( +2) and subtract Brazil’s time (-3) and it will give me +5 (+2 – -3=+5).

So the match televised time will be 5 hours after the listed time in Brazil

If I am in a time zone like North America (UTC – 9) then it would be -9 – -3 = -6. So the match time would be 6 hours prior to the Brazilian listed time.

Calculating time (and dates) in Excel can be tricky unless you understand how they work. For more details on Dates and Times in Excel look at the Dates and Times ebook.

For the World Cup soccer we have created a spreadsheet that allows you to try and predict the results and change time zones. You can get it here