[Business English] How to talk about deadlines and times in English

We all go back to the world of terms. Taking on a task, we estimate how long it will take and find out when the deadline is. Sharing responsibility for a project with someone, we ask how quickly a partner or colleague will do their part. Time is the cornerstone, so let’s see how you can talk about terms, dates and other time categories in English.

First, what are dates?

▪️firm date – exact date, it is definite date

• I will be able to tell you the firm date next week. – I can tell you the exact date next week.

• Have you already agreed on the definite date for the meeting? – Have you already agreed on the date of the meeting?

▪️tentative date – approximate date

▪️cutoff date – deadline for delivery, after it is no longer accepted

▪️due date – the date by which the case must be completed, due date. Can often be found in invoices.

• The due date for the payment is December 21st. – Payment must be made by December 21st.

• There is already a 1 month delay from the due date! – A month has passed since the date of delivery!

In invoices you can also often find the line Payment terms: Net 30…

Payment terms – these are the payment rules prescribed in the contract. They are usually unchanged. you can be prepaid client and pay for all services before their provision. And you can be postpaid by the client when you need to pay after issuing an invoice (invoice).

Clients are always given some time to pay postpaid. If Net 30 is specified, then it has 30 days. If Net 14 – 2 weeks. Net 7 – week. If the money is not credited to the account of the contractor within the specified period, he may collect penalties.

am / pm

Hope everyone remembers the difference between am and pm, but just in case I will repeat:

am – until 12 noon

pm – after 12 noon, evening

That is:

7 am is 7 am

9 pm is 9 pm

Time Zones

When communicating with foreign partners, you will definitely need time zones… The most common is UTC, or Coordinated Universal Time… This standard was introduced to replace the deprecated Greenwich Mean Time (Greenwich mean time, or GMT).

Time by UTC it is not translated neither in summer nor in winter. But such a phenomenon as Daylight saving time (DST), in some countries nobody canceled. In this regard, in America in winter, time is used EST (Eastern Standard Time), in the summer – EDT (Eastern Daylight Time).

Moscow time is often referred to as GMT +3, although personally I prefer simple Moscow time more.

Other options:

EET – Eastern European Time

CET – Central European Time

CDT – Central Daylight Time

CESM – Central European Summer Time

E – Echo Time zone

CT – Central time

CXT – Central Christmas Time

… etc. Abbreviations for time zones are a dime a dozen. The full list can be viewed here…

Man hours

When you need to check with a colleague on a deadline, you ask for an estimate – estimate…

• Could you estimate this task, please? – It is 2 days worth of work / it will take 2 days.

• What about manhours? – Let’s say it will be 8 hours.

A colleague gave initial estimate – preliminary estimate. As we know, in most cases it changes upward. The more interesting it is to compare it with the actual time spent – time spent.

However, sometimes the estimate can be accurate. You can emphasize this using the word sharp:

If you need to say about urgency, usually specify priority (options are highest, high, medium, low, lowest).

If the matter is urgent, we can say that

or

While emphasizing urgency, people often want to say ASAP (as soon as possible), but this may seem rude. Better to replace it with polite at your earliest convenience:

• Please note that I expect it to be done at your earliest convenience. – Please note that I expect this assignment to be completed at the earliest convenient time for you.

If you want an abbreviation, then use EOD (end of day). It is often found in emails or when communicating in instant messengers.

In time or on time?

Both mean “on time”, but in time is just at the right moment, and on time is on schedule, at a set hour.

• Fortunately, I was in time with my application. – Fortunately, I managed to apply.

• I admitted this candidate arrived on time. – I noted that this candidate arrived without delay, at the appointed hour.

In future or in the future?

Both options are correct, but they are used in different cases.

In future means “from now on”. A remark can be made with this expression. For example:

In the future means “at some point in the future” or “starting at some point in the future.” For example:

That’s all. Express yourself correctly and don’t lie about the timing.