Time zone for Force.com API fiscal date literals?

Question

I have a question about fiscal date literals in the Force.com API (http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/api/Content/sforce_api_calls_soql_select_dateformats.htm):

For which time zone are date ranges calculated?

For example, suppose we execute the query:

SELECT Id FROM Opportunity WHERE CloseDate = THIS_FISCAL_QUARTER

where, according to our company's fiscal settings, THIS_FISCAL_QUARTER runs from Jan 1 to Mar 31.

Does the range for THIS_FISCAL_QUARTER use...

• the user's time zone? For example, if the user's time zone is GMT-8, THIS_FISCAL_QUARTER = Jan 1 00:00 GMT-8 to Mar 31 23:59 GMT-8 (or Jan 1 08:00 UTC to Mar 31 07:59 UTC)
• the company's default time zone (according to the company profile)? For example, if the company's default time zone is GMT-8, THIS_FISCAL_QUARTER = Jan 1 00:00 GMT-8 to Mar 31 23:59 GMT-8 (or Jan 1 08:00 UTC to Mar 31 07:59 UTC)
• UTC? THIS_FISCAL_QUARTER = Jan 1 00:00 UTC to Mar 31 23:59 UTC
• something else?

Answer 1

From my experience (fun with reports, not queries) the note from all the way on bottom is valid also for time literals. So it uses running user's timezone setting.

These values are offset by your timezone. For example, in the Pacific timezone, the earliest valid date is 1699-12-31T16:00:00, or 4:00 PM on December 31, 1699.

Maybe you can simply create a test record with datetime field just slightly outside the fiscal quarter and query for it "WHERE mydatetimefield__c > THIS_FISCAL_QUARTER"?

See also http://forums.sforce.com/t5/General-Development/SOQL-Date-literal-TODAY-is-evaluated-incorrectly/m-p/43607