How to Convert Time to Decimal Hours in Excel

Payroll systems, invoices and most pay formulas need hours as a decimal number: 7.75, not 7:45. Excel stores a time like 7:45 as a fraction of a day, so the conversion is a single multiplication, but formatting and rounding details trip people up. Here is how to convert reliably, whether you have one cell or a whole timesheet. For a one-off conversion without a spreadsheet, use the time to decimal calculator.

Why 7:45 is 7.75 hours, not 7.45

An hour has 60 minutes, not 100, so the minutes have to be divided by 60:

For 7:45 that is 7 + 45 ÷ 60 = 7.75. Reading it as 7.45 hours undercounts by 0.3 hour, or 18 minutes, on a single day. Some common values:

For any other minute value, the minutes to decimal hours converter gives the exact figure.

Method 1: multiply the time by 24

Excel stores 7:45 as 0.322917 of a day. A day has 24 hours, so multiplying by 24 gives decimal hours:

=A2*24

Enter the formula in B2 and fill it down. Column B is shown with the 0.00 format; the unrounded values for 8:20, 9:10 and 0:50 are 8.333333, 9.166667 and 0.833333. This is the method to use by default: it is short, it includes seconds automatically, and it works for durations over 24 hours like 41:30.

One catch: Excel often copies the time format from A2 into the result. Then 7.75 displays as 18:00 (7 whole days plus 0.75 of a day). Press Ctrl+1 (Cmd+1 on a Mac) and set the result cells to General, or to Custom → 0.00.

CONVERT gives identical results and can be easier to read in a shared workbook:

=CONVERT(A2,"day","hr")

Method 2: HOUR, MINUTE and SECOND

This version pulls the parts out of the time and does the division explicitly:

=HOUR(A2)+MINUTE(A2)/60+SECOND(A2)/3600

It returns 7.75 for 7:45 and makes the arithmetic visible. But HOUR returns only the hour of the day (0 to 23) and ignores whole days, so 41:30 becomes 17.5 instead of 41.5. Use it only for single entries under 24 hours.

Round decimal hours for payroll

Values like 8.333333 are awkward on a pay stub. Wrap the conversion in ROUND, using the precision your payroll system expects:

=ROUND(A2*24,2)
=ROUND(A2*24,1)
=ROUND(A2*24*4,0)/4

Tenths correspond to 6-minute increments. Quarter hours round to the nearest 15 minutes, so 7 minutes past rounds down and 8 minutes past rounds up. =MROUND(A2*24,0.25) gives the same quarter-hour result. To round the time itself before converting, use =ROUND(A2*96,0)/96, since a day has 96 quarter hours.

Rounding is a policy decision, not just a formula. Under federal law, rounding is permitted only if it is neutral over time, so it cannot consistently favor the employer; FLSA overtime rules explained covers the wider rules.

Also decide whether to round each day or only the total. Three entries of 0:20 each round to 0.33 apiece, which totals 0.99; converting the 1:00 total gives 1.00. Pick one approach and use it consistently.

Convert a whole timesheet column

For times in A2:A31, put =A2*24 in B2 and double-click the fill handle to copy it down. The total can be either of these, which agree exactly when nothing is rounded:

=SUM(B2:B31)
=SUM(A2:A31)*24

To convert in place without a helper column, type 24 in a spare cell and copy it, select the times, then choose Paste Special → Values with the Multiply operation. Afterward, set the cells to General: they keep their time format and would otherwise display as clock times.

If you are working from clock-in and clock-out times, combine subtraction and conversion: =(C2-B2)*24, or =MOD(C2-B2,1)*24 for shifts that cross midnight. Calculate hours worked in Excel covers breaks and overnight shifts in detail.

Convert text and other time formats

Imported times are often text, and other systems write time in their own ways. Convert them first:

=TIMEVALUE(A2)*24
=INT(A2/100)+MOD(A2,100)/60
=TEXTBEFORE(A2,"h")+TEXTBEFORE(TEXTAFTER(A2,"h "),"m")/60

The first formula handles text such as “7:45”. TIMEVALUE always returns less than one day, so for text totals such as “41:30” use =--A2*24 instead. The second formula handles entries like 745 or 1530 typed without a colon. The third parses labels like “7h 45m” and needs Excel 365 or Excel 2024, where TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER are available.

Multiply decimal hours by the pay rate

This is where conversion errors cost real money. A time value is a fraction of a day, so multiplying 8:00 directly by $20 gives $6.67 instead of $160. Convert first, then multiply:

=ROUND(A2*24,2)
=C2*B2

Or in one step: =ROUND(A2*24,2)*B2. Notice the last row: rounding 8:20 to 8.33 hours pays $174.93, while the unrounded 8.333333 hours pays $175.00. If your payroll provider works from exact minutes, use =ROUND(A2*24*B2,2), which rounds only the final dollar amount. To sanity-check a week’s pay, try the gross pay calculator.

Common errors and fixes

• The result shows 18:00 or another clock time. The result cell has a time format. Set it to General or 0.00.
• 41:30 converts to 17.5. HOUR and TIMEVALUE ignore whole days. Use =A2*24.
• #VALUE!. The time is text that Excel cannot parse, often because of a trailing space or a non-breaking space copied from a web page. Clean it with =TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(A2,CHAR(160)," ")) and convert the result.
• Results like 7.7499999999. Floating-point arithmetic stores some times very slightly off. Wrap the conversion in ROUND, especially before comparing values or using them in lookups.
• Someone typed 7.45 for 7:45. That is already a plain number, so *24 returns 178.8. Use Data → Data Validation → Time to force real time entries in the input column.
• ##### after subtracting start from end. The end time is earlier than the start time; use =MOD(C2-B2,1)*24 for overnight shifts.
• Pay is about 1/24 of what it should be. A time value was multiplied by the rate. Multiply by 24 first.

To go the other way, from 7.75 back to 7:45, see convert decimal hours to time in Excel.