diff --git a/packages/db-postgres/src/create/insertRows.ts b/packages/db-postgres/src/create/insertRows.ts
index b78fe1978b..c30570f910 100644
--- a/packages/db-postgres/src/create/insertRows.ts
+++ b/packages/db-postgres/src/create/insertRows.ts
@@ -37,6 +37,9 @@ export const insertRows = async ({
     tableName,
   });
 
+  // TODO:
+  // What do we do if we want to insert a new row and let default values populate,
+  // but we don't have any values?
   const [insertedRow] = await adapter.db.insert(adapter.tables[tableName])
     .values(row).returning();
 
diff --git a/packages/db-postgres/src/create/traverseFields.ts b/packages/db-postgres/src/create/traverseFields.ts
index 91652bdec9..f363897258 100644
--- a/packages/db-postgres/src/create/traverseFields.ts
+++ b/packages/db-postgres/src/create/traverseFields.ts
@@ -190,7 +190,9 @@ export const traverseFields = async ({
         break;
 
       default: {
-        targetRow[columnName] = data[columnName];
+        if (typeof data[field.name] !== 'undefined') {
+          targetRow[columnName] = data[field.name];
+        }
         break;
       }
     }
diff --git a/packages/db-postgres/src/init.ts b/packages/db-postgres/src/init.ts
index 64e1d8610d..852873bbac 100644
--- a/packages/db-postgres/src/init.ts
+++ b/packages/db-postgres/src/init.ts
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ export const init: Init = async function init(
         buildRelationships: true,
         fields: collection.fields,
         tableName: collection.slug,
+        timestamps: collection.timestamps,
       });
     },
   );
diff --git a/packages/db-postgres/src/schema/build.ts b/packages/db-postgres/src/schema/build.ts
index 9dd34b2580..2ad4860ec3 100644
--- a/packages/db-postgres/src/schema/build.ts
+++ b/packages/db-postgres/src/schema/build.ts
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import {
   index,
   numeric,
   PgColumnHKT,
+  timestamp,
   IndexBuilder,
 } from 'drizzle-orm/pg-core';
 import { Field } from 'payload/types';
@@ -29,6 +30,7 @@ type Args = {
   buildRelationships?: boolean
   fields: Field[]
   tableName: string
+  timestamps?: boolean
 }
 
 type Result = {
@@ -41,6 +43,7 @@ export const buildTable = ({
   buildRelationships,
   fields,
   tableName,
+  timestamps,
 }: Args): Result => {
   const formattedTableName = toSnakeCase(tableName);
   const columns: Record<string, AnyPgColumnBuilder> = baseColumns;
@@ -87,6 +90,11 @@ export const buildTable = ({
     relationships,
   }));
 
+  if (timestamps) {
+    columns.createdAt = timestamp('created_at').defaultNow().notNull();
+    columns.updatedAt = timestamp('updated_at').defaultNow().notNull();
+  }
+
   const table = pgTable(formattedTableName, columns, (cols) => {
     return Object.entries(indexes).reduce((acc, [colName, func]) => {
       acc[colName] = func(cols);