Payroll companies require labor hours in a decimal format. And you thought you were done with math after high school. Don't fret. We've got you covered.
Converting Employee Work Hours to Decimal Format
Converting time from hours and minutes to the decimal format needed for payroll requires us to use a 60-base number, not the usual 100-based math we are used to. It's confusing and leads to costly payroll mistakes.
For example, 5 hours and 35 minutes is not 5.35 hours. Do the math. 5.35 hours is actually 5 hours and 21 minutes. The calculation is .35 x 60 = 21 minutes or 21/60= .35.
We recently talked to a business owner who had an employee complain about her hours. She thought the employer shorted her. She was right. The owner made the mistake I just outlined. She took the example of 5 hours and 35 minutes and submitted 5.35 hours to her payroll company. And made the same mistake for every shift every day for 2 weeks.
To show this in the terms we know, let’s look at the basic time conversion (see the last row in the chart):
15 minutes is a quarter of an hour = .25
30 minutes is half of an hour = .50
45 minutes is three-quarters of an hour = .75
60 minutes is one hour = 1.00
Don't you feel smarter now? 😉
The best solution is to avoid manual entries by using an automated employee time-tracking system.
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