How to get the current datetime in UTC from an Excel VBA macro

http://excel.tips.net/Pages/T002185_Automatically_Converting_to_GMT.html

There is a macro on that page with a LocalTimeToUTC method. Looks like it would do the trick. Also some formula examples if you wanted to go that route.

Edit - Another link. http://www.cpearson.com/excel/TimeZoneAndDaylightTime.aspx This page has several methods for date/time. Pick your poison. Either should do the trick, but I feel like the second is prettier. ;)

Granted this question is old, but I just spent some time putting together some clean code based on this and I wanted to post it here in case anyone coming across this page might find it useful.

Create a new Module in the Excel VBA IDE (optionally giving it a name of UtcConverter or whatever your preference may be in the Properties Sheet) and paste in the code below.

HTH

Option Explicit

' Use the PtrSafe attribute for x64 installations
Private Declare PtrSafe Function FileTimeToLocalFileTime Lib "Kernel32" (lpFileTime As FILETIME, ByRef lpLocalFileTime As FILETIME) As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function LocalFileTimeToFileTime Lib "Kernel32" (lpLocalFileTime As FILETIME, ByRef lpFileTime As FILETIME) As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function SystemTimeToFileTime Lib "Kernel32" (lpSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME, ByRef lpFileTime As FILETIME) As Long
Private Declare PtrSafe Function FileTimeToSystemTime Lib "Kernel32" (lpFileTime As FILETIME, ByRef lpSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME) As Long

Public Type FILETIME
  LowDateTime As Long
  HighDateTime As Long
End Type

Public Type SYSTEMTIME
  Year As Integer
  Month As Integer
  DayOfWeek As Integer
  Day As Integer
  Hour As Integer
  Minute As Integer
  Second As Integer
  Milliseconds As Integer
End Type


'===============================================================================
' Convert local time to UTC
'===============================================================================
Public Function UTCTIME(LocalTime As Date) As Date
  Dim oLocalFileTime As FILETIME
  Dim oUtcFileTime As FILETIME
  Dim oSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME

  ' Convert to a SYSTEMTIME
  oSystemTime = DateToSystemTime(LocalTime)

  ' 1. Convert to a FILETIME
  ' 2. Convert to UTC time
  ' 3. Convert to a SYSTEMTIME
  Call SystemTimeToFileTime(oSystemTime, oLocalFileTime)
  Call LocalFileTimeToFileTime(oLocalFileTime, oUtcFileTime)
  Call FileTimeToSystemTime(oUtcFileTime, oSystemTime)

  ' Convert to a Date
  UTCTIME = SystemTimeToDate(oSystemTime)
End Function



'===============================================================================
' Convert UTC to local time
'===============================================================================
Public Function LOCALTIME(UtcTime As Date) As Date
  Dim oLocalFileTime As FILETIME
  Dim oUtcFileTime As FILETIME
  Dim oSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME

  ' Convert to a SYSTEMTIME.
  oSystemTime = DateToSystemTime(UtcTime)

  ' 1. Convert to a FILETIME
  ' 2. Convert to local time
  ' 3. Convert to a SYSTEMTIME
  Call SystemTimeToFileTime(oSystemTime, oUtcFileTime)
  Call FileTimeToLocalFileTime(oUtcFileTime, oLocalFileTime)
  Call FileTimeToSystemTime(oLocalFileTime, oSystemTime)

  ' Convert to a Date
  LOCALTIME = SystemTimeToDate(oSystemTime)
End Function



'===============================================================================
' Convert a Date to a SYSTEMTIME
'===============================================================================
Private Function DateToSystemTime(Value As Date) As SYSTEMTIME
  With DateToSystemTime
    .Year = Year(Value)
    .Month = Month(Value)
    .Day = Day(Value)
    .Hour = Hour(Value)
    .Minute = Minute(Value)
    .Second = Second(Value)
  End With
End Function



'===============================================================================
' Convert a SYSTEMTIME to a Date
'===============================================================================
Private Function SystemTimeToDate(Value As SYSTEMTIME) As Date
  With Value
    SystemTimeToDate = _
      DateSerial(.Year, .Month, .Day) + _
      TimeSerial(.Hour, .Minute, .Second)
  End With
End Function

Simply, you can use COM Object to achieve UTC Time Information.

Dim dt As Object, utc As Date
Set dt = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemDateTime")
dt.SetVarDate Now
utc = dt.GetVarDate(False)

If all you need is the current time, you can do this with GetSystemTime, which involves fewer Win32 calls. It gives you a time struct, with millisecond precision, which you can format how you'd like:

Private Declare PtrSafe Sub GetSystemTime Lib "Kernel32" (ByRef lpSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME)

Private Type SYSTEMTIME
  wYear As Integer
  wMonth As Integer
  wDayOfWeek As Integer
  wDay As Integer
  wHour As Integer
  wMinute As Integer
  wSecond As Integer
  wMilliseconds As Integer
End Type

Usage:

Dim nowUtc As SYSTEMTIME
Call GetSystemTime(nowUtc) 
' nowUtc is now populated with the current UTC time. Format or convert to Date as needed.