When a Gravity Forms survey export misses responses near midnight, compare entry IDs and timezone interpretation before changing the survey totals. The same submission can have one calendar date in UTC and another in the site's timezone. Different date filters can therefore select different populations without any response being lost.
Define the reporting day
Write down the intended business timezone and period, including both endpoints. “Last month” is incomplete when one system uses UTC and another uses a regional timezone. Record the WordPress timezone setting and the tool producing the comparison: dashboard CSV, GFAPI, REST client or a scheduled export add-on.
Gravity Forms staff explain that stored and GFAPI entry dates use UTC while CSV dates follow the site timezone. Check the behavior of any third-party export separately. Do not assume that a custom integration applies the same presentation conversion.
Use boundary entries as the test fixture
Choose synthetic entries just before and just after the reporting boundary. Include entry ID, form ID and creation time in a small export. Leave respondent names and free-text answers out unless they are genuinely needed for reconciliation.
For an illustrative UTC-05:00 date, an entry at 04:30 UTC belongs to the preceding local calendar day. This example is not a year-round rule for Chicago or every US location. Use a timezone-aware conversion for the actual date, including daylight-saving transitions.
| Compare |
Keep fixed |
| Raw API timestamp versus exported timestamp |
Same entry ID |
| One-day export versus wider export |
Same form, status and selected fields |
| Dashboard count versus analysis count |
Same eligibility filters |
| Scheduled job versus manual export |
Same documented date semantics |
Population: Same form and status. Boundary: Compare entry IDs. Conversion: Use the actual dated timezone. Export: Keep the raw file unchanged. Explanatory checklist, not a customer test result.
Widen the diagnostic range, not the final report
Gravity Forms' entry export guide documents the date-range and other filters. Export a slightly wider interval for diagnosis and check whether the supposedly missing IDs appear. If they do, investigate date selection. If they do not, inspect entry status, conditional export rules and form selection.
Do not simply include the extra day in the delivered report. Convert each entry's timestamp consistently, apply the intended business boundary and then deduplicate by entry ID. Keep the raw file unchanged and work from a restricted analysis copy.
For an API integration, prefer an explicit interval specification with timezone and documented inclusivity. Translate it into the endpoint's supported parameters. Avoid inventing an exclusive end-time parameter where the API accepts only dates; test the boundary entries against the actual endpoint.
Close the discrepancy with IDs, not percentages
Produce three sets: IDs present in both datasets, IDs only in the export and IDs only in the comparison. Explain each remaining difference. A percentage adjustment to the chart can conceal a date bug that returns next month.
The survey export and field-mapping guide covers respondent counts and choice totals after the population is correct. HandL WP can reconcile an export discrepancy using a small redacted sample and the exact filters, without needing the full survey response archive.
References reviewed October 12, 2026. Examples are explanatory, not customer test results.