Timesheet conversion chart
- Pay for the shift
- $170.50
- The minutes as a decimal of an hour
- 0.75
- Decimal hours for payroll
- 7.75
Every figure on this page is computed from the inputs you enter, by the method stated below it. TimeCardBook publishes no wage rates and quotes no survey: the defaults are a worked example to replace with your own. The one rule it names, overtime after 40 hours at time and a half, is the federal FLSA floor, and your state may add to it.
The figures above start from a worked example ($170.50). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Timesheet conversion chart worked example (CSV)
This turns the hours and minutes on a time card into the decimal hours payroll runs on. Minutes divided by 60 is the decimal part of an hour, so 45 minutes is 0.75 and 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 hours, and the shift at the rate is the pay. The mistake it exists to stop is adding 7.45 for 7 hours 45 minutes, which short-pays the employee 18 minutes on every shift. Every figure is yours; the tool publishes no wage. Free, on the page, no account; the paid plan keeps every converted shift against the employee.
Minutes divided by 60 is the decimal
A time card counts in minutes and payroll counts in hundredths of an hour, and the two are not the same number. Fifteen minutes is 0.25 of an hour, thirty is 0.5, forty-five is 0.75, and a figure like 20 minutes is 0.33. The tool shows the decimal of the minutes on its own so the conversion can be checked against a printed chart.
Hours plus the decimal is what payroll needs
The whole hours stay as they are and the decimal is added to them: 7 hours and 45 minutes is 7.75 hours, not 7.45. Written the wrong way the sheet reads 18 minutes short on that shift, and over a week and a crew the shortfall is a wage claim. The tool prints the decimal hours as the figure to carry to the timesheet.
The shift at the rate, so the conversion can be seen in money
Decimal hours times the rate is the pay for the shift, and it is shown so the effect of the conversion is visible: 7.75 hours at $22 is $170.50, and 7.45 would have been $163.90. The paid plan keeps every converted shift against the employee it belongs to.
Timesheet conversion chart: common questions
How do I convert minutes to decimal hours for a timesheet?
Divide the minutes by 60 and add the result to the whole hours. Forty-five minutes is 45 divided by 60, which is 0.75, so 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 hours. The tool does the division for any minute figure from 0 to 59.
Should I round time card minutes?
The federal regulation (29 CFR 785.48) accepts rounding to the nearest 5 minutes, or to the nearest one-tenth or quarter of an hour, provided it does not result over time in a failure to compensate employees for all the time they have actually worked. The tool converts the exact minutes; if your policy rounds, round the minutes first and enter the rounded figure, and keep the policy in writing.
Why does payroll use decimal hours at all?
Because pay is hours times a rate, and multiplication needs one unit. Minutes are sixtieths and rates are per hour, so the minutes are turned into hundredths of an hour before the multiplication. The chart is the bridge between the clock on the wall and the number on the pay stub.
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Cite or embed this figure
Timesheet conversion chart (Pay for the shift): $170.50, TimeCardBook, worked example.
Cite as: "Timesheet conversion chart, TimeCardBook", updated 2026-09-03, https://timecardbook.com/tools/timesheet-conversion-chart/.