Decimal Hours Calculator
Turn hours and minutes into decimal hours, the form a payroll sheet wants. This page opens on the Add durations box with 7:45 in it and the total shown as 7.75, and every figure you add reads both ways at once: hours and minutes for the timesheet, decimal for the sheet you are copying into. The table below gives every five minute step from 0:05 to 1:00, worked out by the same code the tool above runs.
One duration per line, or separated by commas or a plus. A plain number is hours, so 1.5 is an hour and a half; write 90m for ninety minutes. A minus takes one back off the total, which is how an unpaid break comes out.
Minutes to decimal hours, every five minute step
Computed with the tool's own conversion: the minutes divided by 60, shown to two places. Of the twelve steps here, only 0:30 and 1:00 land on an exact tenth of an hour. Six minutes is a tenth exactly, which is why payroll rounds to six minute steps rather than five.
| Hours and minutes | Decimal hours | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| 0:05 | 0.08 | 5 |
| 0:10 | 0.17 | 10 |
| 0:15 | 0.25 | 15 |
| 0:20 | 0.33 | 20 |
| 0:25 | 0.42 | 25 |
| 0:30 | 0.50 | 30 |
| 0:35 | 0.58 | 35 |
| 0:40 | 0.67 | 40 |
| 0:45 | 0.75 | 45 |
| 0:50 | 0.83 | 50 |
| 0:55 | 0.92 | 55 |
| 1:00 | 1.00 | 60 |
Common questions
- How do I convert hours and minutes to decimal hours?
- Keep the whole hours and divide the minutes by 60. 7 hours 45 minutes is 45 divided by 60, which is 0.75, so the answer is 7.75. The tool does that for anything you type into the box: write 7:45, or 7h45, or 465m, and it comes back as 7.75. The decimal is shown to two places, which is what payroll sheets take.
- What is 45 minutes in decimal hours?
- 0.75 hours. The other common ones are 15 minutes at 0.25, 20 at 0.33, 30 at 0.50, 40 at 0.67 and 50 at 0.83. Every five minute step from 0:05 to 1:00 is in the table on this page, and each one is the figure this tool prints rather than a number typed in from somewhere else.
- Why does payroll round to six minutes?
- Because six minutes is exactly a tenth of an hour, so a shift rounded to six minute steps always lands on a clean 0.1 in decimal. Five minute rounding does not: 0:05 is 0.08 hours and 0:25 is 0.42. The Time card mode has 5, 6 and 15 minute rounding, and it rounds each shift rather than the week, which is what payroll does.
- Can I add several times up and get one decimal total?
- Yes, and that is what this page opens on. Put one duration on each line, or separate them with commas or a plus sign, and the total comes back in both forms. A plain number is read as hours, so 1.5 is an hour and a half; write 90m if you meant ninety minutes. A minus in front of an entry takes it back off the total, which is how an unpaid break comes out of a list you have already typed.
- Is the decimal exact?
- The minutes behind it are exact and the decimal is rounded to two places for display, so 8:20 reads as 8.33 while the arithmetic underneath still counts 500 whole minutes. Twenty minutes is a third of an hour and has no exact decimal, which is why the two place figure is the convention rather than an approximation this tool introduced.
Exact time arithmetic: minutes are counted, then shown as hours and minutes and as decimal hours. Overtime here is a count of hours over a threshold you set; what any hour is paid is not part of this tool.