NEW YORK – The first year of daylight savings time (DST) extending for an extra week ends this Sunday.

As a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, DST began on the second Sunday of March and is ending on the first Sunday in November, covering the dates of March 11 to November 4, 2007.

Most companies shouldn't experience problems due to the change because IT departments began preparing for it months ago, before the start of DST this year, The Wall Street Journal reports. Similarly, most products will likely be unaffected by the schedule change, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, because most time-dependent products such as cell phones and computers get their time and date from a network. Windows Vista and Office 2007 have already incorporated the new schedules.

In the mid-1980s, NACS led the coalition to expand DST by six weeks because it helps retailers lower their energy bills and enhance store traffic during the evening hours of operation. In fact, during the 2005 debates on energy policy, several members of Congress cited NACS position papers from 20 years ago to help make their case for the recent DST expansion.