How to use the decimal hours calculator
- This time to decimal calculator works both ways. To convert time to decimal, type the minutes, or hours and minutes separated by a colon, in the first box. The decimal appears rounded to two places, the way most payroll systems show hours, and to four places for checking.
- To convert decimal to time, type decimal hours in the second box. You get hours and minutes, the exact time with seconds and the total number of minutes.
- Use the chart below when you only need the decimal for the minutes part of a time, or print it and keep it next to the time clock.
The formula: minutes ÷ 60
An hour has 60 minutes, so one minute is 1/60 of an hour, about 0.0167. Decimal hours = minutes ÷ 60. Going the other way, minutes = decimal hours × 60. Hours to decimal works the same way: the whole hours stay as they are and only the minutes are converted.
| Time | Calculation | Decimal hours |
|---|---|---|
| 15 minutes | 15 ÷ 60 | 0.25 |
| 30 minutes | 30 ÷ 60 | 0.50 |
| 40 minutes | 40 ÷ 60 | 0.67 |
| 45 minutes | 45 ÷ 60 | 0.75 |
| 8 h 20 min | 500 ÷ 60 | 8.33 |
Rounding: 0.67 or 0.6667?
Quarter hours convert exactly: 15 minutes in decimal is 0.25, 30 minutes is 0.5 and 45 minutes is 0.75. Most other minutes do not. 40 minutes in decimal is 0.6666…, which is 0.67 rounded to the nearest hundredth. The two-place value is close enough for a single entry, but small differences add up if you round every day and then add the days.
The safer order is to total the week in hours and minutes first and convert once. For 38 hours 50 minutes at $18.00 an hour, the exact pay is $699.00; rounding the hours to 38.83 before multiplying gives $698.94.
Rounding decimals is different from rounding clock punches. Some employers round each punch to the nearest 5 minutes, tenth of an hour (6 minutes) or quarter hour, which federal rules allow only if it does not shortchange employees over time (29 CFR 785.48(b)). Tenth-hour rounding is why some pay stubs only show hours like 7.3 or 7.4. The time clock calculator applies those punch rules for you.
Time conversion chart: minutes to decimal hours
Use this payroll conversion chart to turn the minutes part of a time card total into hundredths of an hour. Add the decimal to the whole hours: 7 hours 24 minutes is 7 + 0.40 = 7.40 hours.
Minutes to decimal hours, 0 to 59 minutes.
| Minutes | Decimal | 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 |
| Minutes | Decimal | 3 places |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Minutes | Decimal | 3 places |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
A common time card mistake: 7.30 is not 7:30
A colon means hours and minutes; a decimal point means fractions of an hour. 7:30 is seven and a half hours, which is 7.50 decimal hours. Writing it as 7.30 would pay for 7 hours 18 minutes. When a decimal to minutes check matters, multiply the part after the point by 60: 0.30 × 60 = 18 minutes.
If you are adding a whole week of punches, the time card calculator and timesheet calculator do the conversion for every day and show both formats side by side.