Small Things Sorted

Work out hours

Add up times, take off breaks, get decimal hours.

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How to do it

  1. Enter start and end

    As clock times, for example 8:15 and 17:00.

  2. Enter the break

    In minutes.

  3. Read both figures

    Hours and minutes, and the decimal value beside it.

What this is for

Start, end, break – and out comes the working time. It sounds simple and goes wrong regularly, because clock times count in sixties while time sheets expect decimal hours. Seven hours and thirty minutes are 7.5 hours, not 7.30.

Both forms are shown together. An end before the start is read as a night shift and counted across midnight, rather than reported as an error.

Common questions

Most time sheets and invoices expect them. 7.5 is seven and a half hours; 7.30 would be seven hours and eighteen minutes.

An end before the start is counted across midnight – that is almost always what was meant.

Under German working time law at least 30 minutes beyond six hours and 45 minutes beyond nine. The tool points this out but calculates with the value you enter.

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