Checked 15 October 2026. What was checked. How these pages are maintained.
The conversion
Decimal hours = hours + minutes ÷ 60. 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5. The other way: the whole number is hours, and the fraction × 60 is minutes. 8.25 hours is 8 hours 15 minutes.
Use this next to a timesheet. Do not round minutes away if your workplace pays to the minute.
Worked example
7:30 as duration is 7.5 hours. 7.75 hours is 7:45. A 37.5-hour week is 37 hours 30 minutes, not 37 hours 50 minutes.
Payroll systems want decimal hours (7.5) more often than hh:mm. Do not type 7.30 and expect 7 hours 30 minutes — 7.30 decimal is 7 hours 18 minutes.
7.30 is not 7:30
Clocks and payroll use different notations, and the decimal point is the trap. 7 hours and 30 minutes is 7 + 30/60 = 7.5 decimal hours. The number 7.30 means 7 hours plus 0.30 of an hour. 0.30 × 60 = 18 minutes, so 7.30 is 7:18, not half past seven. Type 7.5 in the decimal box when you mean half an hour. Type 30 in the minutes box when you are starting from a clock.
A 37.5-hour week is 37 hours and 30 minutes. It is not 37 hours and 50 minutes, and it is not 37.50 hours of a different length. 37.50 and 37.5 are the same decimal. The trailing zero does not mean 50 minutes.
Where the rounding shows up
8.25 hours is 8 hours and 15 minutes, because 0.25 × 60 = 15. 8.33 hours is about 8 hours and 20 minutes (0.33 × 60 = 19.8, which rounds to 20 on this page). If a workplace pays to the minute, keep the minutes and convert once at the end of the week rather than rounding every day to two decimals and adding the drift. The timesheet already works in clock times and unpaid breaks. Use this page when a spreadsheet cell and a punch report will not sit in the same column.
A week added from mixed notes
Monday 7:30, Tuesday 8:00, Wednesday 7:45, Thursday 8:15, Friday 6:30. As decimals those are 7.5, 8, 7.75, 8.25, and 6.5. The sum is 38 decimal hours, which is 38:00, not 38 hours and some leftover from adding the minutes wrong. The minute column by itself is 30 + 0 + 45 + 15 + 30 = 120 minutes, and 120 minutes is 2 hours to carry, so 7+8+7+8+6 = 36, plus 2, is the same 38. Do that carry before you multiply by an hourly rate. Forty minutes is 40 ÷ 60 = 0.666… hours, which you should leave as 0.67 only at the final step if payroll accepts two decimals. 0.67 × 60 = 40.2, so a week of rounded days can drift by a minute or two. Sum the minutes, then convert once.
Common questions
Is 7.5 always 7:30?
Yes. 0.5 × 60 = 30 minutes.
What about seconds?
This page stops at minutes. 10 seconds is about 0.003 hours — most payroll systems ignore that.