diff --git a/src/tools/utils.py b/src/tools/utils.py
index 5127d49f..9979d4a4 100644
--- a/src/tools/utils.py
+++ b/src/tools/utils.py
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ import os.path
 from sat.core.log import getLogger
 log = getLogger(__name__)
 import datetime
+import dateutil
+import calendar
 import time
 import sys
 import random
@@ -55,6 +57,13 @@ def xmpp_date(timestamp=None, with_time=True):
     template = u"{}T{}".format(template_date, template_time) if with_time else template_date
     return datetime.datetime.utcfromtimestamp(time.time() if timestamp is None else timestamp).strftime(template)
 
+def date_parse(value):
+    """Parse a date and return corresponding unix timestamp
+
+    @param value(unicode): date to parse, in any format supported by dateutil.parser
+    """
+    return calendar.timegm(dateutil.parser.parse(unicode(value)).utctimetuple())
+
 def generatePassword(vocabulary=None, size=20):
     """Generate a password with random characters.