Hours between two times, with breaks
Calculate the duration between two times, including overnight shifts.
Total worked time
8h·0min
Decimal hours: 8.00
This finds the duration between two clock times, handles shifts that cross midnight automatically, subtracts an unpaid break, and returns both hours-and-minutes and decimal hours. The decimal output is the part most people actually need — payroll systems almost universally expect 7.5 rather than 7h 30m, and converting by hand is where timesheet errors come from. Decimal hours are total minutes ÷ 60, so 7h 45m is 7.75 and 8h 20m is 8.33. A 9:00 to 17:00 shift with a 30-minute unpaid lunch is 7.5 paid hours. When the end time is earlier than the start, the calculation rolls forward a day, so 22:00 to 06:00 returns eight hours rather than a negative number. The common manual error is treating 7h 30m as 7.30 instead of 7.5, which quietly underpays twelve minutes on every shift.
About the Time Duration Calculator
Find the exact duration between two clock times — perfect for timesheets, work shifts, billable hours, and event planning. Handles shifts that cross midnight automatically, and lets you subtract an unpaid break in minutes. Results are shown in hours and minutes and in decimal hours for payroll.
How to use the Time Duration Calculator
- 01Enter your start time (24-hour or browser-native time picker).
- 02Enter your end time. If it's earlier than the start, we'll treat it as the next day.
- 03Optionally enter unpaid break minutes to subtract.
- 04Read the total duration in hours + minutes and as decimal hours.
Why use our Time Duration Calculator
- 01
Overnight aware
End time earlier than start? We roll over to the next day automatically.
- 02
Break support
Subtract any unpaid break in minutes for a true worked-time total.
- 03
Decimal hours
Get the payroll-ready decimal hours value (e.g. 7.5 instead of 7h 30m).
- 04
Private
Times stay in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
How do you convert hours and minutes to decimal hours?
Payroll runs on decimal hours because pay is a multiplication: hours times rate. That requires time expressed as a decimal fraction, not as hours and minutes, and the conversion is minutes divided by 60 rather than a decimal point moved. This is the single most common timesheet mistake: 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5, not 7.30, and 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75, not 7.45. Writing 7.45 instead of 7.75 understates the shift by 18 minutes, and across a month of shifts that is most of a working day unpaid. The awkward values are the ones that do not divide neatly — 10 minutes is 0.1667, 20 minutes is 0.3333, 40 minutes is 0.6667 — and rounding those to two decimal places is standard but introduces a small drift that accumulates over many entries. Some employers round each shift to the nearest quarter hour instead, which is legal in many jurisdictions provided it does not systematically favour the employer.
Overnight shifts and why naive subtraction fails
A shift from 22:00 to 06:00 produces a negative result if you simply subtract, because 06:00 is numerically smaller than 22:00. The correct handling is to recognise that the end time falls on the following day and add 24 hours before subtracting, giving 8 hours. This tool does that automatically whenever the end time is earlier than the start. The assumption it makes is that no shift exceeds 24 hours, which is safe for essentially all employment. A related complication worth knowing about is daylight saving. On the night clocks go forward, a shift spanning the change is one hour shorter in real elapsed time than the clock suggests; on the night they go back it is one hour longer. Employers handle this inconsistently — some pay clock hours, some pay actual elapsed hours — and it is worth knowing which applies before the shift rather than after.
Breaks, rounding and keeping records that hold up
Whether a break is paid varies by jurisdiction and contract, and the distinction matters. In the UK, workers are entitled to a 20-minute rest break when working more than six hours, and it does not have to be paid. Under US federal law, short breaks of 5 to 20 minutes are generally compensable while bona fide meal periods of 30 minutes or more are not, provided the employee is genuinely relieved of duty — a lunch break where you have to answer the phone is working time. Enter only unpaid breaks here; deducting a paid break understates your hours. On record-keeping, the practical advice is to log times as they happen rather than reconstructing a week on Friday, since reconstruction reliably produces round numbers that do not match reality and are hard to defend if a timesheet is queried. Keep your own copy independently of the employer's system, and check the decimal conversion on your payslip against your own figures at least occasionally.
Minutes to decimal hours
| Minutes | Decimal | Common error |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 0.1667 | 0.10 |
| 15 | 0.25 | 0.15 |
| 20 | 0.3333 | 0.20 |
| 30 | 0.5 | 0.30 |
| 40 | 0.6667 | 0.40 |
| 45 | 0.75 | 0.45 |
| 50 | 0.8333 | 0.50 |
Divide minutes by 60. Writing the minutes after a decimal point understates 45 minutes by 18 minutes of pay.
Frequently asked questions
How do you handle shifts that cross midnight?
If the end time is earlier in the day than the start, the shift is assumed to continue into the next day and 24 hours is added before subtracting.
How is the decimal hours value calculated?
Total minutes divided by 60. So 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5 and 7 hours 45 minutes is 7.75 — this is what payroll systems expect.
Why is 7 hours 45 minutes not 7.45?
Because 45 minutes is three quarters of an hour, which is 0.75. Writing 7.45 understates the shift by 18 minutes of pay.
Should I include my lunch break?
Enter it only if it is unpaid. Deducting a paid break understates your hours. Whether a break is paid depends on your jurisdiction and contract.
Are breaks legally required?
In the UK, a 20-minute rest break applies when working more than six hours, unpaid by default. Under US federal rules, breaks of 5–20 minutes are generally paid and bona fide meal periods are not.
What happens on daylight saving nights?
Clock hours and elapsed hours differ by one. Employers handle this inconsistently, so check which basis yours uses before the shift rather than after.
Can I enter a break longer than the shift?
If the break exceeds the shift length the worked total shows as zero. Recheck the start, end and break values if that is unexpected.
Should my employer round my hours?
Rounding to the nearest quarter hour is permitted in many jurisdictions provided it does not systematically favour the employer over time.
Is anything I enter stored or sent online?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser and nothing is transmitted.
Last updated
UK rest break entitlement per the Working Time Regulations 1998. US break compensability per the Fair Labor Standards Act and Department of Labor guidance. Not legal advice.