Checking date, currency and language conventions inside an app

Run a task-based check for Australian English. Record the intended date, time, amount, currency and action, then follow the task from entry through confirmation and later review. Pass only when people can enter and identify the same values and understand what to do next; fail when a value or instruction is ambiguous, changes meaning or conflicts with the task.

Trace one complete task

Choose a task such as arranging an appointment. Follow entry, selection, confirmation, reminder and later review, including related notifications or receipts. At each step, compare every displayed or entered date, time and amount with the values you recorded as intended.

Separate display from input: formatting a stored date does not prove the app interprets a typed date correctly. For example, 04/05/2026 may mean 4 May or 5 April to different readers. Check the Australian Government Style Manual's Dates and time guidance, and show the intended date plainly at consequential steps if the format could be unclear.

Check the time as well as the date

For an appointment or deadline, identify the relevant location or time zone wherever an unlabelled time could be mistaken. Australia has several time zones and different daylight-saving observance. Check that a selected appointment still refers to the same event after a device time-zone change or daylight-saving transition.

Check the displayed time against the intended event and the user's 12-hour or 24-hour preference. Pass if the time remains identifiable and refers to the correct event; fail if a change in display or device settings makes its meaning unclear.

Identify the currency being charged or shown

Inspect prices, totals, discounts and refunds separately. Compare each amount with the currency intended for that task, and make the currency clear wherever the amount alone could be uncertain. Check that AUD is identified as Australian dollars and that an amount in USD is not mistaken for AUD.

Confirm that the amount shown before a charge agrees with the actual billing route. Locale formatting does not determine the currency charged. For an Australian business task involving a foreign-currency invoice, check the AUD value needed for BAS reporting; the ATO expects foreign-currency invoices to tie back to Australian-dollar values.

When a task shows GST, use the Moneysmart GST calculator to compare the GST amount, price excluding GST and total including GST. Its 10 per cent calculation applies to taxable sales; goods and services can also be GST-free or input-taxed. Do not assume the same GST treatment for every task.

Read the words in the task

Set the device and app to Australian English where available, then review buttons, field labels, validation errors and help text while following the task. Check that wording makes the action clear: an invalid-date message should tell the person what to change. Also check text expansion, truncated controls, screen-reader labels and supported language settings.

On Android, check that the device locale selects the intended resources; Android uses ICU and CLDR for internationalisation support. The Android resource framework selects resources to match the device, so check that the required text appears in the actual task, not only in settings. Locale-sensitive data formatting may need to be handled programmatically in Kotlin.

Record the screen, input, intended meaning and observed result, including successful, failed and interrupted routes. This reveals a confusing entry or recovery step even when the final confirmation is clear.

Pros and Cons of Using Device Locale for App Language