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I've already looked at Is there a word for "a point in time"?, but there doesn't seem to be any answers other than "timestamp". While I agree that it is the most technically accurate description, is there a term that lends itself more to a business environment?

For example, I have a spreadsheet with a list of customer feedback. The date and time that each issue was reported is listed in a single column. What would be a good business-y name to call that column? I'm looking for something that means "timestamp" without using a term that could be…misconstrued…as overly technical.

EDIT: To be more specific and concise, I'm looking for a term that means "timestamp", is used more popularly in a business environment than "timestamp", and is generic enough to always mean "timestamp" with almost any data.

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6 Answers 6

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Just have it as Time. If you want to be specific then say Time Log, or Logged Time assuming that the word log isn't too technical.

Timestamp is not a recent term and has been in existence for a very long time. I highly doubt it will be misconstrued as something 'too technical'.

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    I agree with both your points. I don’t consider timestamp a particularly technical term at all in and of itself.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 18:55
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    @Tucker Before I posted the question, I looked up the word timestamp and saw the photo of the literal time stamp on Wikipedia. Sweet! In any case, terms that are "too technical" seem to evoke feelings of ignorance and oppression in the business place, especially when the business at hand is IT. I wanted to avoid that. While I agree that timestamp is the most accurate word to use, people might feel like it's a term used in technical documentation. I really like Time Logged and will probably use that. A specific datetime is still a specific time.
    – Oran D. Lord
    Commented Apr 17, 2014 at 19:00
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A possible solution might be to simply name it after the GMT offset, e.g. instead of naming the column as "Date", you name it as "GMT +8:00".

Other alternatives:

  • Date/Time or Date & Time

  • Logged On

  • On

  • When

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Moment doesn't work?

a particular time : a precise point in time

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    I don't believe it will work in this instance. "Moment" sounds too odd to have as a column header in a spreadsheet of reported issues. Thanks though!
    – Oran D. Lord
    Commented Apr 17, 2014 at 18:37
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    Too odd-sounding, Exactly... english.stackexchange.com/a/164233/8278
    – Pacerier
    Commented May 24, 2014 at 19:28
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Do you really want to describe the type of data you are showing or do you want a descriptive title for the column that shows 'The date the issue was reported' ?

If it's the former then timestamp is fine, you might need to make clear if it's UTC, UTC+offset, UnixTime or whatever.

If not then perhaps you should consider a column heading that is descriptive to the consumers of the report, perhaps

Date Issue Reported

or

Reported Date (shorter, but easily confused with Report Date)

or

Don't worry too much about because just after you think it's all perfect they'll ask you to change it anyway. :)

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  • This is more of a software comment than an EL&U comment, but it's important to have a more descriptive column name than just "TimeStamp" or "time" or "moment". Time that what happened?
    – outis nihil
    Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 19:22
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    @outisnihil I totally agree, had the OP simply asked for a synonym for timestamp; moment is one of my favourites (I use it in code), but he asked for 'What would be a good business-y name' and that leads us to 'What is most understandable to a non-technical reader'. The whole question should really be in an IT SE of some sort but I could see the IT crowd kicking it out as 'not technical enough' or replying 'ask your users'.
    – Frank
    Commented Apr 16, 2014 at 19:47
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    @Frank I like how you explained three different ways of looking at it (#3 is the most likely solution…). The phrase "Reported Date" sounds really good, but (noting the reasons I gave in the answer from @Wes), this might not be the best choice in this instance. For example, someone could copy the table to use as a template, and the Timestamp column might not exactly mean the time the row was "reported".
    – Oran D. Lord
    Commented Apr 17, 2014 at 18:31
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For a column in a spreadsheet, try simply "Date/Time" or "Date" or "Date & Time".

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    While "Date/Time" and "Date & Time" are pretty specific, they seem a little too odd for this instance. Just "Date" would sound better as a header name, but the column contains both date and time, so it might not sound as accurate. I like this answer though.
    – Oran D. Lord
    Commented Apr 17, 2014 at 18:22
  • I've actually been there and had to label a similar column
    – Wes Modes
    Commented Apr 18, 2014 at 4:08
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I think the word "Timestamp" is fine. Have you asked non-technical people what they think? Maybe you're imagining it as being too technical just because of your viewpoint?

Speaking as a dev for 40+ years inc many of them on business systems.

The origin is from a physical stamp!

picture of 1960 timestamp, via Wikipedia

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