An account's language, currency and time zone. What each of the three fields actually affects, who can change them, and what goes wrong when the time zone is off.
If an automation that should run at 9 in the morning fired at 3 at night, or a price reached a customer in the wrong currency, the cause is very likely on this screen. General holds the open account's language, currency and time zone — three small fields that show up all over the panel. This guide covers each one.
💡 This screen configures only the account that is currently open. If you have a second Instagram account, its language, currency and time zone are separate; switch to it in the account switcher and fill the same screen again.
What it is for
These three settings are the account's local identity. Whenever the panel writes a date, compares times, or prepares a system message that reaches your customer, it reads these values. They live on the account's own record and do not touch your portfolio, your user account or your interface language.
The screen has a single card with three fields and one Save button.
How to reach the screen
Make sure the account you want to configure is open. If not, switch to it in the account switcher.
Click Settings in the left menu.
Pick General under the This account group.
Default content language
The first field. The dropdown lists the languages enabled on the platform, each written in its own language ("Türkçe", "English").
The hint underneath says it plainly: system texts sent to the customer are prepared in this language. So this setting binds the messages the panel produces on your behalf, not the interface you look at.
The practical difference:
The panel's menus, buttons and these help texts follow your interface language, which you pick yourself on the Preferences screen.
The system-generated texts your customer sees in chat follow the language in this field.
That is why a business owner using an English interface can perfectly well write to Turkish customers in Turkish: interface language English, account content language Turkish.
⚠️ This field does not translate the text you wrote yourself. Whatever you typed into an automation step or a saved reply is what goes out. The setting only binds text the panel generates.
Currency
The second field. The list shows the currencies enabled on the platform by their codes (TRY, USD, EUR and so on).
It determines the currency in which amounts inside the account's content are interpreted. If a flow shows a price or writes an order total, formatting follows this value.
⚠️ This currency has nothing to do with your billing. The currency you pay {{brand.name}} in belongs to your plan and is managed on the Plan and invoices screen. Changing the account currency does not change your invoice.
Time zone
The third field, and it spans the whole card. The list contains every time zone in the world under its IANA name: Europe/Istanbul, Europe/Berlin, America/New_York and so on.
The hint is unambiguous: scheduled jobs and reports run on this clock. This is one of the most-asked-about settings in the panel because its reach is wide:
Business hours. The 09:00–18:00 range in your weekly schedule is read in this time zone. The business hours screen states which zone you are in right in its header.
Scheduled automation steps. If a flow waits until "tomorrow at 10:00", the clock comes from here.
Reports. Day boundaries in daily and weekly breakdowns are drawn on this clock.
Holidays. Which 24 hours a date you marked actually covers is decided here.
A concrete example: a shop in Istanbul accidentally leaves the time zone at America/New_York. Even with 09:00–18:00 in its weekly schedule, the panel reads that in New York time; at 4 in the afternoon in Turkey the panel still says "outside business hours" and sends the after-hours auto-reply. The customer gets a "we're closed right now" message in broad daylight.
⚠️ Changing the time zone does not rewrite past records, but it changes every time decision from that moment on. After changing it, review your business hours and your scheduled steps once.
Saving and permissions
Fill the three fields and press Save on the card. When it completes, a "Settings saved." notice appears.
Owner, Admin, Editor and Viewer roles can open this screen; Agents never see it in the menu. But only Owner and Admin can change anything. As an editor or viewer, the fields render disabled and the Save button isn't drawn at all — you can read the values, not edit them.
What is deliberately not here
There is no account name field on this screen, and that is a deliberate decision. An account is shown under the name of the Instagram account or WhatsApp number it is connected to; the panel has no separate "account name" field. To change the displayed name, change it on the Instagram or WhatsApp side.
The portfolio name isn't here either. That lives on Portfolio settings › General; see Portfolio settings: General.
Common mistakes
Trying to change the interface language here. The panel's own language is in My user settings › Preferences. The language here is for texts that reach customers.
Picking a nearby city because "my city isn't listed". The IANA list is a list of time zone regions, not cities. All of Turkey is Europe/Istanbul; you don't need to look for Ankara or İzmir.
Changing the currency and expecting the invoice currency to follow. They are separate.
Forgetting the second account. When you connect a new account, set these three fields for it too; a new account starts on defaults.
Changing the time zone without rechecking business hours. The schedule stays the same but its meaning shifts.
Related concepts
For the screen the time zone directly drives, see the Business hours guide. For interface language and theme see Preferences, and for which setting lives in which area see The three settings areas.