Decimal hours versus hours and minutes
Payroll systems almost always want decimal hours: 8 hours 30 minutes is 8.5, not 8.30. Thirty minutes is half an hour, and half of 100 is 50 — the confusion costs people money on timesheets constantly.
The conversion is minutes divided by 60. Fifteen minutes is 0.25, twenty minutes is 0.333, forty-five is 0.75.
Rounding rules on timesheets
Many employers round clock times to the nearest quarter hour. Under US federal rules that rounding must be neutral — it cannot systematically favour the employer — which is why the common practice is to round to the nearest seven-and-a-half-minute boundary rather than always down.
Over a year, even a few minutes rounded the wrong way each day adds up to real money. Keeping your own record of actual start and end times is worth the small effort if your hours vary.
Breaks, paid and unpaid
Short breaks of roughly five to twenty minutes are usually counted as paid working time, while genuine meal breaks of thirty minutes or more, where you are relieved of all duties, are typically unpaid. The break field above subtracts unpaid time only.
If you are required to remain at your desk or answer calls during a break, it generally counts as working time in most jurisdictions, regardless of what it is called on the schedule.
Frequently asked questions
How are overnight shifts handled? +
If the end time is earlier than the start, the calculator assumes the shift crosses midnight and adds 24 hours. A 22:00 to 06:00 shift correctly returns eight hours.
How do I add up several shifts? +
Convert each shift to decimal hours, add those, then convert back if needed. Adding hours and minutes directly is where arithmetic errors creep in.
What is 7 hours 45 minutes in decimal? +
7.75 hours. Divide the 45 minutes by 60 to get 0.75, then add it to the whole hours.