Decimal Hours Converter

The two formulas

Forward: decimal hours = hours + (minutes ÷ 60). The minutes are a fraction of an hour, never a decimal tail to copy across — 45 minutes contributes 0.75, not 0.45. Backwards: multiply the decimal by 60 to get total minutes, then split into hours and the remainder: 6.35 × 60 = 381 minutes = 6 hours 21 minutes. Fractional results are rounded to the nearest whole minute, since clock time has no smaller unit on a timesheet.

When you meet decimal hours

On payslips and invoices, mostly. A timesheet in h:mm has to become a multiplier before it can meet an hourly rate, so payroll software stores 7.75 where you wrote 7:45. Billing in tenths is the same idea coarser: consultants who bill in 0.1-hour units are rounding every task to the nearest 6 minutes, which is why 0.1 appears everywhere in legal and consulting invoices. The full minute-by-minute table is on the decimal hours chart; lengths between two clock times are the duration calculator's job.

Frequently asked questions

What is 1 hour 20 minutes in decimal?

1.33: 20 ÷ 60 = 0.3333…, so 1 hour 20 minutes is 1.33 hours at two decimals. An hour and a half, by contrast, is exactly 1.50.

What is 8.5 hours in hours and minutes?

8 hours 30 minutes. The 0.5 is half an hour — 30 minutes — not 50 minutes. That misreading is the most common conversion error in both directions.

How do I convert minutes to decimal hours in Excel?

If the minutes are in a cell by themselves, divide by 60. If you have an Excel time value (which is stored as a fraction of a day), multiply by 24 to get decimal hours. Keep two decimals for payroll-style figures.

Should I round each entry or the total?

The total, when accuracy matters: sum the minutes across the week and convert once. Converting and rounding every day separately can drift a few hundredths of an hour over a pay period.