Hours calculator: from start and end to the total
Enter a start time, an end time and a break. You get the hours worked as a decimal and in hours and minutes.
Calculator
Start time, end time and break. If the shift runs past midnight, you do not need to add anything yourself.
Leaving it empty counts as no break
Enter a start and end time to see the hours worked.
What this calculator does not do
- No pay: it calculates time, not money. An hourly rate turns it into an invoice line
- No premiums: overtime and other premiums are not included
Decimal hours: why the result is a decimal number
Because adding hours is a different thing from reading a clock. A shift from 8:00 to 12:30 lasts four and a half hours, and on the timesheet that is written 4.5, not 4.30. Add in a spreadsheet with a clock format and on Friday you get a total that does not match the time worked. The calculator therefore gives both forms: the decimal for payroll, and hours and minutes as a check.
- 4.5 hours is 4 hours and 30 minutes, but not the same number
- Payroll almost always works with the decimal form
- The minutes line underneath helps you check the sum
Calculating hours past midnight
This is where working it out by hand goes wrong most often. A night shift from 22:00 to 06:00 lasts eight hours, but work out 6 minus 22 and you land on minus sixteen. The calculator sees that the end is before the start and adds a day. That also holds for a shift that ends exactly at midnight: 16:00 to 00:00 is eight hours, not zero.
- 22:00 to 06:00 with a 30-minute break: 7.5 hours
- 16:00 to 00:00 with no break: 8 hours
- The calculator notes that the shift ends the next day
The break is deducted, not added
A break is not working time and so does not count towards the hours worked. That sounds obvious and still often goes wrong, because the break is on the schedule but not in the sum. Enter the break in minutes: half an hour is 30, three quarters of an hour is 45. Leave the field empty and the calculator works without a break.
- Break in minutes, not in hours
- Example: 8:00 to 17:00 with a 45-minute break gives 8.25 hours
- Time that counts as working time at your workplace is not entered as a break
Working out one shift is not the same as keeping a week
The calculator takes one shift at a time. For a single check that is enough. For a whole week or month, with totals and the rest between shifts, time tracking is more practical than a single field.
- For one shift: this calculator
- For a week: add up the daily values
- For a team that clocks in on its own: an app rather than a file
Where the calculating stops
The calculator adds and subtracts time, nothing more. It knows nothing about premiums, overtime or the break rules at your workplace. It gives you the number those questions start from.
If you already have the hours per day and need the weekly total, add hours sums them. If it is not about a shift but about the size of a job, the FTE calculator is the right sum.
Where clocks change, this sum is off once or twice a year, and that is not a mistake but the clock: on the night of the change, a shift from 22:00 to 06:00 lasts seven or nine hours instead of eight.
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