How to calculate hours worked
- For one shift, type the Start time and End time in 24-hour form (17:30, 1730) or 12-hour form (5:30 pm), and any unpaid Break in minutes.
- For a timesheet, choose A week and write one line per day, like “Mon 9:00-17:30 30”: start, end and the break in minutes.
- Read the time worked in hours and minutes and as decimal hours. Add your Hourly rate to see the pay.
Minutes as decimal hours
| Minutes | Decimal | Minutes | Decimal |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 0.08 | 35 | 0.58 |
| 10 | 0.17 | 40 | 0.67 |
| 15 | 0.25 | 45 | 0.75 |
| 20 | 0.33 | 50 | 0.83 |
| 25 | 0.42 | 55 | 0.92 |
| 30 | 0.5 | 60 | 1 |
A common mistake is writing 7 hours 30 minutes as 7.30 on a timesheet. In decimal hours that’s 7.5, and 7.30 would mean 7 hours 18 minutes. The difference adds up over a pay period.
Filling in a timesheet
Work out each day on its own, then add the decimal hours, or let the A week option do both. A day from 8:45 am to 5:10 pm with a 45-minute lunch is 7 hours 40 minutes, or 7.67 hours. Five days like that come to 38.33 hours for the week.
Some employers round clock-in and clock-out times to the nearest 5, 6 or 15 minutes, and rules on paid and unpaid breaks differ between employers and countries. If your total doesn’t match your payslip, check how your workplace rounds times and which breaks it pays for.