Page last updated
How to use the decimal hours calculator
- Choose hours and minutes, decimal hours, total minutes or a list of times.
- Enter the time. For a week of entries, use the list and write one time per line.
- Pick a rounding rule if your time clock rounds, and an hourly rate if you want the pay.
- Read the decimal hours to two and four places, then copy or print the result.
How do you convert hours and minutes to decimal hours?
A time card entry of hours and minutes becomes decimal hours by dividing the minutes by 60 and adding the whole hours: 7 hours 45 minutes is 7 + 45 ÷ 60 = 7.75. The value is held at full precision and shown to two and four places, because 20 minutes is 0.3333 hour exactly and 0.33 on most time cards. Going the other way, the decimal part times 60 is the minutes. A list is added in minutes and converted once at the end so rounding does not build up. Rounding follows 29 CFR 785.48(b): to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour (6 minutes) or quarter hour, where a remainder of half the unit or more rounds up; for the quarter hour that is the 7-minute rule, 1 to 7 minutes down and 8 to 14 up.
For example, 7 hours 45 minutes is 7 + 45 ÷ 60 = 7.75 decimal hours, which pays $155.00 at $20.00 an hour. 20 minutes is 0.33 hour on a time card (0.3333 exactly), and 8.30 hours is not 8 hours 30 minutes but 8 hours 18 minutes. The times and rate are made up; yours come from what you type.
Who should use the decimal hours calculator
- Employees and managers turning time card entries into decimal hours for payroll
- Bookkeepers entering hours into software that takes decimals
- Anyone checking how a 7-minute or quarter hour rounding rule changes the pay
Who should not use this
- Anyone who needs overtime, tax or deductions worked out; use the overtime or paycheck tools
- Anyone deciding which minutes are paid; this tool converts the time you give it
- Anyone who needs a legal opinion on a rounding policy
Limitations
- Rounding is shown as a rule would apply it. Whether an employer’s rounding policy is lawful depends on whether it averages out over time, which one entry cannot show.
- The tool converts time; it does not decide what counts as hours worked, such as meal periods, travel or waiting time.
- Pay is hours times the rate you enter, before tax, overtime and deductions.
- Results are estimates, not legal, tax, payroll or financial advice.
- Nothing is uploaded or stored on a server. Clearing your browser data also removes the saved profile.
What are decimal hours?
Decimal hours write part of an hour as a decimal fraction instead of minutes, so 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75. Payroll systems prefer them because the pay is simply hours times the hourly rate: 7.75 × $20.00 = $155.00. Minutes do not multiply cleanly, so a time card in hours and minutes has to be converted first.
The conversion is minutes ÷ 60. 15 minutes is 0.25, 30 minutes is 0.5, 45 minutes is 0.75, and 20 minutes is 0.33. To turn the hours and minutes of a punch into decimal hours, convert only the minutes and add them to the whole hours.
Minutes to decimal hours chart
| Minutes | Hours, 2 places | Hours, 3 places |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0.00 | 0.000 |
| 1 | 0.02 | 0.017 |
| 2 | 0.03 | 0.033 |
| 3 | 0.05 | 0.050 |
| 4 | 0.07 | 0.067 |
| 5 | 0.08 | 0.083 |
| 6 | 0.10 | 0.100 |
| 7 | 0.12 | 0.117 |
| 8 | 0.13 | 0.133 |
| 9 | 0.15 | 0.150 |
| 10 | 0.17 | 0.167 |
| 11 | 0.18 | 0.183 |
| 12 | 0.20 | 0.200 |
| 13 | 0.22 | 0.217 |
| 14 | 0.23 | 0.233 |
| 15 | 0.25 | 0.250 |
| 16 | 0.27 | 0.267 |
| 17 | 0.28 | 0.283 |
| 18 | 0.30 | 0.300 |
| 19 | 0.32 | 0.317 |
| 20 | 0.33 | 0.333 |
| 21 | 0.35 | 0.350 |
| 22 | 0.37 | 0.367 |
| 23 | 0.38 | 0.383 |
| 24 | 0.40 | 0.400 |
| 25 | 0.42 | 0.417 |
| 26 | 0.43 | 0.433 |
| 27 | 0.45 | 0.450 |
| 28 | 0.47 | 0.467 |
| 29 | 0.48 | 0.483 |
| Minutes | Hours, 2 places | Hours, 3 places |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | 0.50 | 0.500 |
| 31 | 0.52 | 0.517 |
| 32 | 0.53 | 0.533 |
| 33 | 0.55 | 0.550 |
| 34 | 0.57 | 0.567 |
| 35 | 0.58 | 0.583 |
| 36 | 0.60 | 0.600 |
| 37 | 0.62 | 0.617 |
| 38 | 0.63 | 0.633 |
| 39 | 0.65 | 0.650 |
| 40 | 0.67 | 0.667 |
| 41 | 0.68 | 0.683 |
| 42 | 0.70 | 0.700 |
| 43 | 0.72 | 0.717 |
| 44 | 0.73 | 0.733 |
| 45 | 0.75 | 0.750 |
| 46 | 0.77 | 0.767 |
| 47 | 0.78 | 0.783 |
| 48 | 0.80 | 0.800 |
| 49 | 0.82 | 0.817 |
| 50 | 0.83 | 0.833 |
| 51 | 0.85 | 0.850 |
| 52 | 0.87 | 0.867 |
| 53 | 0.88 | 0.883 |
| 54 | 0.90 | 0.900 |
| 55 | 0.92 | 0.917 |
| 56 | 0.93 | 0.933 |
| 57 | 0.95 | 0.950 |
| 58 | 0.97 | 0.967 |
| 59 | 0.98 | 0.983 |
Most time cards use two places. Add the whole hours to the decimal from the chart: 7 hours 40 minutes is 7 + 0.67 = 7.67 hours.
How do you convert decimal hours to hours and minutes?
Keep the whole number as hours and multiply the decimal part by 60 for minutes. 7.75 hours is 7 hours and 0.75 × 60 = 45 minutes. 6.4 hours is 6 hours and 0.4 × 60 = 24 minutes, so 6:24. If the minutes come out with a fraction, round to the nearest whole minute: 5.37 hours is 5 hours and 22.2 minutes, which is 5:22.
| Tenth of an hour | Minutes |
|---|---|
| 0.1 | 6 |
| 0.2 | 12 |
| 0.3 | 18 |
| 0.4 | 24 |
| 0.5 | 30 |
| 0.6 | 36 |
| 0.7 | 42 |
| 0.8 | 48 |
| 0.9 | 54 |
How do you total a week of time card entries?
Add the entries in hours and minutes first, carrying 60 minutes into an hour, then convert the total once. Converting each day first and adding the rounded decimals can drift by a few minutes. The sample week below totals 37:50, which is 37.83 decimal hours and pays $756.67 at $20 an hour.
| Day | Hours and minutes | Decimal hours | Pay at $20.00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 7:30 | 7.50 | $150.00 |
| Tuesday | 8:15 | 8.25 | $165.00 |
| Wednesday | 6:45 | 6.75 | $135.00 |
| Thursday | 8:00 | 8.00 | $160.00 |
| Friday | 7:20 | 7.33 | $146.67 |
| Total | 37:50 | 37.83 | $756.67 |
Does using two decimal places change the pay?
A little, and never by much. Two places can be off by as much as 0.005 hour, which is 18 seconds. The worst case in the 60-minute chart is 35 minutes, where 0.58 is off by 12 seconds. The effect is a few cents per entry, and it can go either way. The table shows a day of 8 hours 20 minutes, where 20 minutes is 0.3333 hour exactly but 0.33 when written to two places.
| Hourly rate | Exact pay | Pay on 8.33 hours | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $20.00 | $166.67 | $166.60 | +$0.07 |
| $25.00 | $208.33 | $208.25 | +$0.08 |
| $30.00 | $250.00 | $249.90 | +$0.10 |
If your payroll software accepts hours and minutes, use them. If it needs decimals, three places keep the error under a cent at ordinary rates.
How does the 7-minute rule round time?
Some time clocks round each punch to the nearest quarter hour. Under the 7-minute rule, 1 to 7 minutes past a quarter hour round down and 8 to 14 minutes round up. The rounding is lawful under 29 CFR 785.48(b) only when it averages out so employees are paid for all the time they work, and it is not allowed if it is used to consistently cut pay.
| Time worked | Rounded to | Exact pay | Rounded pay | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:00 | 8:00 | $160.00 | $160.00 | $0.00 |
| 8:01 | 8:00 | $160.33 | $160.00 | -$0.33 |
| 8:02 | 8:00 | $160.67 | $160.00 | -$0.67 |
| 8:03 | 8:00 | $161.00 | $160.00 | -$1.00 |
| 8:04 | 8:00 | $161.33 | $160.00 | -$1.33 |
| 8:05 | 8:00 | $161.67 | $160.00 | -$1.67 |
| 8:06 | 8:00 | $162.00 | $160.00 | -$2.00 |
| 8:07 | 8:00 | $162.33 | $160.00 | -$2.33 |
| 8:08 | 8:15 | $162.67 | $165.00 | +$2.33 |
| 8:09 | 8:15 | $163.00 | $165.00 | +$2.00 |
| 8:10 | 8:15 | $163.33 | $165.00 | +$1.67 |
| 8:11 | 8:15 | $163.67 | $165.00 | +$1.33 |
| 8:12 | 8:15 | $164.00 | $165.00 | +$1.00 |
| 8:13 | 8:15 | $164.33 | $165.00 | +$0.67 |
| 8:14 | 8:15 | $164.67 | $165.00 | +$0.33 |
| 8:15 | 8:15 | $165.00 | $165.00 | $0.00 |
How do you convert time to decimal hours in Excel or Google Sheets?
A spreadsheet stores a time as a fraction of a day, so multiplying a time by 24 gives decimal hours. The result cell must be formatted as a Number; if it is formatted as Time you will see a clock value instead.
| What you want | Formula | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Time in a cell (7:30) to decimal hours | =A2*24 | Format the result cell as Number, not Time |
| Time in a cell to total minutes | =A2*1440 | A day has 1,440 minutes |
| Decimal hours (7.5) to a time you can format | =A2/24 | Format as [h]:mm so totals past 24 hours show |
| Hours and minutes in separate cells to decimal | =A2+B2/60 | A2 is hours, B2 is minutes |
| Text such as 7:30 to decimal hours | =TIMEVALUE(A2)*24 | Works when the cell holds text, not a time |
Sources and review
Reviewed on 02 Nov 2026 against the published sources below. Rules and prices change, so check the current position before you rely on a figure.
- 29 CFR 785.48: Rounding practices (Cornell Legal Information Institute)
- 29 CFR 785.47: Where records show insubstantial or insignificant periods of time (Cornell Legal Information Institute)
- 29 CFR 516.2: Records to be kept for employees subject to the minimum wage provisions, including hours worked each workday and workweek (Cornell Legal Information Institute)
Common questions
How do I convert minutes to decimal hours?
What is 7 hours 45 minutes in decimal hours?
What is 8 hours 30 minutes in decimal hours?
How do I convert decimal hours to hours and minutes?
How many minutes is 0.1 hour?
How do I convert time to decimal in Excel?
Which is better for payroll, hours and minutes or decimal hours?
Can an employer round my time to the quarter hour?
Guides that explain the rules
Related tools
Results are estimates, not legal, tax, payroll or financial advice. They follow the rules and rates named under Sources, leave out anything the page does not mention (such as other income, credits, local rules or your employer’s own policy), and can differ from a payroll run, a tax return or an agency’s decision. See the disclaimer. Found a mistake? Report an error in a calculation.