---
title: "Set your organisation's default language and timezone"
description: "Administrators set the language new members start with and the reference timezone for statistics under Administration → Organisation → Regional defaults. Existing members keep their own choices."
category: administration-security
section: organization-management
tags: [admin]
type: Tutorial
lastUpdated: 2026-10-09
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/administration-security/set-the-organisations-default-language-and-timezone
---

# Set your organisation's default language and timezone


Administrators set the organisation's **Default language** and **Timezone** in the **Regional defaults** section of **Administration → Organisation**. The default language is the language a new member starts with; the timezone is the reference calendar for the organisation's statistics. Neither setting changes a language or timezone a member has already chosen for themselves.

> **In summary:** to make French the default for your staff, set **Default language** to **Français** before you invite them. Each change saves as soon as you select it, and every member can still pick another language in their own settings.

## Prerequisites

You need administrator rights to open **Administration**. Members and guests do not see it.

## Set the default language and the timezone

1. Open your user menu from your avatar in the top-right corner, then select **Administration**.
2. In the left menu, under **General settings**, select **Organisation**.
3. Scroll to **Regional defaults**.
4. Open the **Default language** list and select a language. Languages appear under their own name, so **Français** rather than French and **Deutsch** rather than German. Type part of a name to filter the list.
5. Open the **Timezone** list, type a city or a zone name such as `Paris` or `Europe/Paris`, and select the entry. Entries read as city names with their current UTC offset, for example **Paris, Marseille (UTC+02:00)**.

There is no Save button. A confirmation appears after each selection: **Default language updated** or **Timezone updated**. If a change cannot be saved, the confirmation says so and the previous value stays in place.

## What changes, and what does not

### Default language

The default language is a starting point for people who do not have an account yet:

- A person who joins through an invitation, an invitation link or self sign-up starts with the default language. If your identity provider creates accounts through SCIM and sends a `locale`, that value is used instead.
- The emails Talkspirit sends to invited people before they create their account, such as their activity digests, are written in the default language.
- Existing members keep the language they have. Changing the default never rewrites a member's choice, and each member can pick another language at any time in their account settings.

Until an administrator changes it, the default language is English.

### Timezone

The timezone is the reference calendar for the organisation's statistics. The curves on the **Statistics** page, and the presentation you generate from it, are computed in this timezone, so two administrators always read the same figures. Until an administrator sets one, the organisation's statistics use UTC.

The organisation timezone does not change any member's personal timezone. Each member's own timezone is set in their account settings, and a new member starts with the timezone their browser reports at sign-up.

## What's next?

- [Choosing my platform language](/en/getting-started/changing-the-language)
- [Inviting new users, members, or guests](/en/administration-security/inviting-new-users-members-or-guests)
- [Download a statistics report](/en/goals-analytics/download-a-statistics-report)
- [Changing the name of my organisation](/en/administration-security/how-to-change-the-name-of-my-organization)