Hours to decimal means writing the time on a card as a number the rate can multiply. Eight hours and forty five minutes on the card is 8.75 on the sheet. The clock counts minutes in sixtieths and a rate is money for one whole hour, so the two do not multiply until the minutes are divided by 60 and carried after the point. Divide the minutes by 60, keep two places, add the result to the whole hours, and the line is done: fifteen minutes is 0.25, thirty minutes is 0.5, forty five minutes is 0.75. Convert every line that way, add the column, and the week is ready to multiply by the rate and to split at the 40 hour line for overtime. The free hours-to-decimal conversion chart on this site prints every minute from one to fifty nine beside its decimal, so a card converts by reading across rather than dividing line by line, and the paid product converts and totals the sheet as you type it, then files it against the employee and the pay period.
Turning hours into decimals in one step
Take the minutes on the line, divide by 60, and keep two places after the point. The whole hours never change. Twenty minutes is 0.33 because 20 divided by 60 is 0.3333, and ten minutes is 0.17 because 10 divided by 60 is 0.1666. Going the other way, multiply the decimal part by 60: 0.4 of an hour is 24 minutes, and 0.8 of an hour is 48 minutes. Two places is enough for a weekly sheet, because a cent is the smallest thing the pay can move by, and the third place moves nothing at the rates a small crew is paid.
A week worked through
A carpenter writes 8:15, 7:45, 8:30, 9:00 and 6:30 across the five days. Converted, those lines are 8.25, 7.75, 8.5, 9.0 and 6.5, and the column adds to 40.0 hours. At 22 dollars an hour that week is 880 dollars of regular pay. Now suppose Saturday adds 4:00 more. The total becomes 44.0 hours, the first 40 stay at 880 dollars, and the 4 hours above the line are paid at time and a half: 22 multiplied by 1.5 is 33 dollars, and 4 hours at 33 dollars is 132 dollars, so the week comes to 1,012 dollars gross.
Where the 40 hour line falls
The split matters more than the arithmetic. Under the federal wage and hour rules cited below, the multiplier applies to hours worked over 40 in one workweek, and the workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring block of seven consecutive days, not a calendar week and not a pay period. A biweekly pay period holds two workweeks and the line falls twice inside it, so a crew that works 44 hours and then 36 is owed four hours of overtime, not none. Convert first, total each workweek on its own, and only then split at 40.
Reading hours by decimal off the chart instead of dividing
Dividing by 60 on every line is where the mistakes come from, especially when a foreman is copying twelve cards on a Friday afternoon. The conversion chart is the same arithmetic done once and printed: find the minutes in the left column, read the decimal beside it, write that after the whole hours. It prints on one page for the wall by the cards, it is free and needs no account, and it does not care whose sheet it sits next to.
Keeping the converted sheet
The converted figure is the one the pay was calculated from, so it is the one worth keeping. Save the card with the hours as written and the decimal beside them, the week ending date, the rate used and the totals, because the question that arrives in March is always about a specific week and a specific person. The paid product on this site holds each converted sheet against the employee and the pay period and exports the range when the accountant asks for it.
Questions people ask about hours to decimal
How do I convert 8 hours 45 minutes to decimal?
Divide 45 by 60 to get 0.75, then add the 8 whole hours: the line is 8.75 hours. At 20 dollars an hour that single day is 175 dollars.
Why not just multiply 8 hours 30 minutes as 8.30?
Because 30 minutes is half an hour, which is 0.5, not 0.30. Writing 8.30 underpays the line by twelve minutes every time it happens, and it happens on every half hour on the sheet.
How many decimal places should I keep?
Two is enough for a weekly sheet. Round the division to the nearest hundredth, convert every line the same way, and add the converted column rather than converting the total at the end.
Does writing time as a decimal change what the crew is owed?
No. It is the same time written in a form the rate can multiply. What changes the pay is the rate, the hours above 40 in the workweek and any break time taken off the card before it is converted.