finishedAt

FinishedAt is a timestamp field used in data models, logs, and reporting to record the exact time at which an operation, task, or process completed. It is typically paired with a startedAt field to mark the full duration of work and to support performance measurement, auditing, and historical analysis.

Representation and storage commonly involve ISO 8601 date-time strings with a time zone (for example, 2024-07-21T14:32:10Z) or numeric representations such as epoch milliseconds. In relational databases this may be stored as a TIMESTAMP or DATETIME with time zone, while in JSON-based systems it is often a string. The choice depends on the application’s data model, querying needs, and time zone handling policy.

Usage patterns vary by domain. In task queues, build pipelines, data processing jobs, and API requests, finishedAt marks when the work completed, enabling duration calculations and SLA monitoring. If a task has not finished, finishedAt is typically null or omitted. This field can also assist in auditing, error analysis, and trend reporting by providing an objective end point for events.

Considerations include time zone consistency, clock synchronization, and the decision of when to record the timestamp (on normal completion, on finalization steps, or on error handling). Related fields often include startedAt, duration or processingTime, and possibly failedAt or endedAt. Variants and synonyms such as completedAt or endedAt are used in some schemas.