Hours Calculator
Turn a start time, an end time, and a break into hours worked — shown in hours and minutes and as the decimal hours payroll needs.
No colon needed — “900” reads as 9:00 and “1730” as 17:30. Times can be 12h or 24h. If the end is earlier than the start, it counts as an overnight shift.
Your hours will appear here
Enter your start and end time and any break to see hours worked and decimal hours for payroll.
Which time tool should you use?
- Need a full multi-day timesheet with overtime and pay? Use the Time Card Calculator.
- Only want the raw gap between two times, with no break or pay? Use the Time Duration Calculator.
Quick Answer
This calculator finds the hours between one start time and one end time, deducts a break, and shows the result both in hours and minutes and in decimal hours for payroll. For a full multi-day timesheet with overtime and pay, use the Time Card Calculator.
How It Works: Formula & Variables
Worked = (End − Start) − Break · Decimal hours = minutes ÷ 60
- Break
- Entered in minutes and taken off the gross time.
- Decimal hours
- Minutes divided by 60 — 7:15 is 7.25, and note that 1h18m is 1.3, not 1.18.
- Rounding
- Optional to the nearest 15, 6, or 5 minutes for payroll.
Worked Examples
Example 1: A standard day with lunch
In at 9:00, out at 17:30, with a 30-minute lunch. Gross is 8 hours 30 minutes; take off the 30-minute break and you are left with 8 hours 00 minutes, which is 8.00 decimal hours.
Example 2: Converting minutes to decimal
You worked 7 hours 15 minutes. Divide 15 by 60 to get 0.25, so the payroll figure is 7.25 decimal hours.
Key Concepts
Minutes are not decimals: 1 hour 18 minutes is 1.3 hours, because 18 ÷ 60 is 0.3. Writing it as 1.18 is the single most common payroll slip.
Breaks change the total: Unpaid lunch time comes off the worked hours, so leaving it out inflates the day.
Night shifts wrap past midnight: When you clock out the next morning, the end time is earlier on the clock but later in real time, and the tool accounts for that.
Common Mistakes
Reading minutes as decimals: 1h18m is 1.3 hours, not 1.18 — always divide the minutes by 60.
Forgetting to subtract the break: Leaving lunch in makes the day look longer than it was paid.
Using this for a whole week: For several days at once, plus overtime and pay, switch to the Time Card Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Put in your start and end time, subtract any break, and the calculator returns hours and minutes worked along with the decimal-hours figure that payroll uses.
Divide the minutes by 60. So 15 minutes is 0.25 of an hour and 7 hours 15 minutes is 7.25 decimal hours. The calculator does this conversion for you.
Yes. Enter the break length in minutes and it comes off the gross time before the total is shown.
It does. When the end time is earlier than the start, the tool reads it as an overnight shift and counts across midnight.
You can round the net time to the nearest 15, 6, or 5 minutes. Rounding to a tenth of an hour uses the 6-minute option, which many timekeeping systems rely on.
No. You can enter 900 and it reads as 9:00, or 1730 as 17:30, so you can key in times quickly without the colon.
Related Calculators
Time Card Calculator
Add up a whole week of shifts, with overtime and gross pay from an hourly rate.
Time Duration Calculator
Just the gap between two times, with no break deduction or pay.
Time Calculator
Add and subtract lengths of time in days, hours, minutes, and seconds.
Date Calculator
Work with calendar dates and date math instead of clock time.