Does SSRS Report Builder always default date to MM/dd/yyyy?

Question

I am setting up some reports on report builder and the date format always shows as MM/dd/yyyy, I want the format to be dd/MM/yyyy. I have checked the language of the server, database and user and they are all set to British English, I know this can be changed at report level however I am hoping to give end users the ability to create reports and not have to change this on each report. Is there anything I can set so this is always set to British English format or does report builder always show in American format?

I know this question is posted quite a lot but from what I have seen this is always about changing the format at report level but I want to change the default.

Thanks

Answer 1

If you want to display according to client's datetime format then you have to specify in Language property of Report.
Set =User!Language in Language property under localization tab of Report properties

Answer 2

What I do is instead of starting from a blank report each time I have a Basic Report Template file saved in a folder on the reporting server that end users can access. This report is blank except for the basic formatting that is applied to pretty much every report (start and end date parameters, common datasource, company logo and basic report properties including language)

Altering this template functionally alters the defaults as no one is using the blank new file they are all loading the basic template and modifying from there. This way you can set the language property to en-GB save the template and voila! Dates should now be dd/MM/yyyy.

If you don't have a common report server you can create the basic template and save it as an .rdl file which you can send to your colleagues to use instead of the default blank file.

Answer 3

If you look at the date formats in Report Builder, you will notice that the first set of them have asterisks. These formats will change with the regional settings of the report. In the report properties, set the language to =User!Language. We use these settings, and everyone gets the format they expect.