Hours & Minutes Versus Decimal Time
Are you looking for a way out to convert your hours and minutes to decimal format in a proper method for payroll?
I have a complete review and a comparison on both of the time and how they can be efficiently expressed.
Hours & Minutes
I am pretty sure that everyone one of us know that the format we use for keeping the time is "base 60". In more simple words, which means that our time is represented in 60 one minute units. So, whenever the time gets increased, for example, if the time is 3:59 and it is increased, then we don't write 3:60.
Instead, we increase the hour by one and reset the minute to zero and it becomes 4:00. We show hours(60 minutes) and a portion of an hour is expressed in a format HH: MM. So whenever we observe time expressed with a colon(:), we know that we are seeing the time in the hours and minutes format.
If you still could not get it what I just explained, you don't need to worry. let's have a look at a simple example and you will understand that what I really meant to say.
For example, 7:30 is the time. So, how we read it? We read it for seven hours and 30 minutes. When time is presented in this format, we understand that it means seven periods of 60 minutes(7 hours) and one period of 30 minutes.
Decimal Hours
As the name specifies, the decimal hours format uses "Base 10" to represent time as common decimal numbers. The decimal number system uses numbers from 0 to 9.
In the above example where I mentioned 7:30, we all know that 30 minutes means half an hours because one hour equals 60 minutes. So, in the decimal format this is expressed as 7.5 hours or 7 and a half hours. It is not much difficult to understand this time format, all you need to know is to understand how the decimal format works, so 7:30 (hours and minutes)= 7.5 decimal hours.
Hours & Payroll
Expressing the time in decimal format is important because the wages are calculated using decimal time format. For example, if you earn 10$ per hours and work till 7:30. You must convert 30 minutes to 0.5 decimal time before you multiply by your hourly wage. 10$ x 7.5 hours = $75.
Converting Employee Hours
You can do the conversions very easily once you remember the figures. For instance, we fix the figures in mind that:
- 15 minutes = quarter hour = .25 hours
- 30 minutes = half hour = .5 hours
- 45 minutes = three-quarters hour = .75 hours
But some figures are pretty much difficult to remember. How do you convert 7:56 ( seven hours and 56 minutes) to decimal time?
You can use the chart given below, and then you will find what 7:56 stands for in decimal number system.
By using the above chart, you can easily convert time from base 60 to base 10. Using the example of 7:56, we simply divide the 56 by 60:
56/60=0.93333333.
Decimal hours are limited to displaying two decimal place and skip the other decimal place, so repeating 3 is rounded so that 56 minutes are expressed in decimal format as 0.93 hours.
Converting Time to Decimal Hours
Follow the steps below to convert the Time to Decimal Hours:
To convert time to just hours:
For example we have time 2:45:45
Step-1:
2 hours is 2 hours * (1 hour/ 1 hour) = 2 hours
Step-2:
45 minutes is 45 minutes * (1 hour / 60 minutes) = 45/60 hours = 0.75 hours
Step-3:
The 45 seconds is 45 seconds * (1 hour / 3600 seconds) = 45/3600 hours = 0.0125 hours
Step-4:
Now if we add them together we get :
2 hours + 0.75 hours + 0.0125 hours = 2.7625 hours
To convert time to just minutes:
For example we have the time 2:45:45
Step-1:
2 hours is 2 hours * (60 minutes / 1 hour) = 2 * 60 minutes = 120 minutes
Step-2:
45 minutes is 45 minutes * (1 minute / 1 minute) = 45 * 1 minutes = 45 minutes
Step-3:
45 seconds is 45 seconds * (1 minute / 60 seconds) = 45/60 minutes = 0.75 minutes
Step-4:
If we add all these together we get:
120 minutes + 45 minutes + 0.75 minutes = 165.75 minutes
To convert time to just seconds:
For example we have the time 2:45:45
Step-1:
2 hours is 2 hours * (3600 seconds / 1 hour) = 2 * 3600 seconds = 7200 seconds
Step-2:
45 minutes is 45 minutes * (60 seconds / 1 minute) = 45 * 60 seconds = 2700 seconds
Step-3:
45 seconds is 45 seconds * (1 second / 1 second) = 45 * 1 seconds = 45 seconds
Step-4:
The sum of all the above times is:
7200 seconds + 2700 seconds + 45 seconds = 9945 seconds.