Minutes to Decimal Hours Converter
7:45 in, 7.75 out — and back again. The exact conversion payroll systems use, both directions at once.
The short answer
Formula. Decimal hours = hours + minutes ÷ 60.
Example. 7:45 = 7.75 decimal hours; the payroll quarter-hour anchors are :15 = 0.25, :30 = 0.50, :45 = 0.75.
Convert
Hours
0–59 (values of 60+ roll into hours)
e.g. from a payroll export
How the conversion works
There are 60 minutes in an hour but 100 hundredths in a decimal, so minutes become decimal hours by dividing by 60: 45 minutes is 45 ÷ 60 = 0.75 of an hour, and 7 hours 45 minutes is written 7.75. The reverse multiplies the fractional part by 60 — 0.75 × 60 = 45 minutes. That is the entire mechanism; everything else on this page is convenience.
The reason the conversion exists at all is payroll arithmetic: pay is a multiplication problem, and multiplication wants one unit. At $20 an hour, 7:45 is awkward but 7.75 is instant — $155.00. Every major payroll and timesheet system (QuickBooks, ADP, Gusto, and most point-of-sale time clocks) stores and reports hours as decimals rounded to two places, so a paper timesheet in h:mm must be converted before it becomes money. The classic mistake is reading minutes as hundredths — treating 7:45 as "7.45 hours," which silently steals 18 minutes of pay per entry; if your paycheck looks a bit light, that error is the first suspect.
Rounding is where precision meets policy. Minutes that are not multiples of 3 become repeating decimals (20 minutes = 0.3333…), so payroll rounds — this converter follows the standard convention of two decimals, rounding half up on the final value only. Employers additionally round punches to the nearest 5 or 15 minutes in many workplaces (the old "7-minute rule"), which happens before any of this math. The chart below gives every 5-minute value up to an hour so you can eyebatch a whole timesheet without touching the keyboard.
Sources & review date
- Exact arithmetic, no estimates; the quarter-hour anchors are the standard payroll convention.
Last reviewed: October 2026. Numbers that drift (fees, prices, densities) are editable inputs on this page.
Conversion FAQs
What is 30 minutes in decimal?
0.50 hours. And 15 minutes is 0.25, 45 is 0.75 — the quarter-hour values that cover most timesheets are exactly these.
What is 8 hours 20 minutes as a decimal?
8.33 hours (20 ÷ 60 = 0.3333, rounded to two decimals). Multiply by your rate for pay: 8.33 × $20 = $166.60.
Is 0.25 hours 25 minutes?
No — it is 15 minutes. The decimal is a fraction of 60, not of 100. This mix-up is the single most common timesheet error and always pays you wrong in someone's favor.
How do I convert a week of h:mm entries quickly?
Add all the minutes, carry every 60 into hours, then convert once: 5 days of 7:45 is 37:45 = 37.75 hours. Or use the weekly timecard calculator page, which totals the week and shows both formats.