Minutes to hours
Convert minutes to hours by dividing by 60. Includes the decimal-hours table payroll and timesheets need, and the 1.30 trap.
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The formula
hours = minutes ÷ 60The timesheet trap
This is the conversion that costs people money, and it is worth stating plainly:
1 hour 30 minutes is 1.5 hours, not 1.30 hours.
Payroll systems, invoicing tools and project trackers work in decimal hours. A clock
reads in hours and minutes. Typing 1.30 into a field that expects decimal hours claims
1 hour 18 minutes, and typing 7.45 claims 7 hours 27 minutes — an error of 33 and 18
minutes respectively, in the wrong direction, on every line.
| Clock time | Decimal hours | Typing the clock time claims |
|---|---|---|
| 1 h 15 m | 1.25 | 1 h 09 m |
| 1 h 30 m | 1.5 | 1 h 18 m |
| 1 h 45 m | 1.75 | 1 h 27 m |
| 7 h 30 m | 7.5 | 7 h 18 m |
Decimal hours, every five minutes
The table timesheets actually need:
| Minutes | Decimal hours |
|---|---|
| 5 m | 0.08 |
| 10 m | 0.17 |
| 15 m | 0.25 |
| 20 m | 0.33 |
| 25 m | 0.42 |
| 30 m | 0.50 |
| 35 m | 0.58 |
| 40 m | 0.67 |
| 45 m | 0.75 |
| 50 m | 0.83 |
| 55 m | 0.92 |
| 60 m | 1.00 |
The four that are exact — 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes — are the reason billing is so often rounded to the quarter hour.
Quick reference
| Minutes | Hours |
|---|---|
| 30 m | 0.5 h |
| 60 m | 1 h |
| 90 m | 1.5 h |
| 120 m | 2 h |
| 240 m | 4 h |
| 480 m | 8 h |
| 1440 m | 24 h |
Working time
| Minutes | Hours | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard working day | 480 m | 8 |
| Working day with unpaid lunch | 510 m | 8.5 |
| Standard working week | 2400 m | 40 |
| Statutory maximum week (EU average) | 2880 m | 48 |
Estimating in your head
Halve it, then halve the decimal problem away. For anything ending in 15, 30 or 45 the answer is a quarter, a half or three quarters. For the rest, minutes ÷ 6 gives tenths of an hour: 40 minutes ÷ 6 is 6.7, so 0.67 hours.