diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.test.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.test.ts
index 898ef08f6c..7d4d2ef8db 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.test.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/next/DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine.test.ts
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
 import { getVoidLogger } from '@backstage/backend-common';
 import { Hash } from 'crypto';
+import { DateTime } from 'luxon';
 import waitForExpect from 'wait-for-expect';
 import { DefaultProcessingDatabase } from './database/DefaultProcessingDatabase';
 import { DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine } from './DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine';
@@ -84,7 +85,7 @@ describe('DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine', () => {
             },
             resultHash: '',
             state: new Map(),
-            nextUpdateAt: '',
+            nextUpdateAt: DateTime.now().toSQL(),
             lastDiscoveryAt: '',
           },
         ],
@@ -147,7 +148,7 @@ describe('DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine', () => {
             },
             resultHash: '',
             state: new Map(),
-            nextUpdateAt: '',
+            nextUpdateAt: DateTime.now().toSQL(),
             lastDiscoveryAt: '',
           },
         ],
@@ -181,7 +182,7 @@ describe('DefaultCatalogProcessingEngine', () => {
       unprocessedEntity: entity,
       resultHash: 'the matching hash',
       state: new Map(),
-      nextUpdateAt: '',
+      nextUpdateAt: DateTime.now().toSQL(),
       lastDiscoveryAt: '',
     };