π Count Hours Between Times
Shift length with breaks and overnight rollover. Built for timesheets.
Hours Worked
How to Use the Hours Counter
Enter your start and end times, add any unpaid break in minutes, and press Count Hours. The tool reports the net hours as a decimal, the same span in hours and minutes, the gross time before the break, and your pay if you entered an hourly rate. Overnight shifts are detected automatically: if the end time is earlier than the start time, the calculator assumes the shift crossed midnight and adds a day.
This covers the three situations where counting hours goes wrong by hand. First, breaks: people forget to subtract lunch and overstate the day by half an hour. Second, overnight shifts: 11 PM to 7 AM looks like negative 16 hours until you add the missing day. Third, decimals: payroll wants 7.75, not "7 hours 45 minutes," and dividing minutes by 60 under time pressure invites errors.
The Formula
The overnight adjustment is the key step. A shift from 11:00 PM (1,380 minutes) to 7:00 AM (420 minutes) gives 420 - 1,380 = -960, and adding one full day of 1,440 minutes yields 480 minutes, or 8 hours. Everything after that is subtraction and one division. Entering the hourly rate is optional but turns the same math into a paycheck estimate in one step.
Worked Example
A shift runs 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM with a 30-minute unpaid lunch. Convert to minutes: 9:00 AM is 540, 5:30 PM is 1,050. Gross is 1,050 - 540 = 510 minutes. Subtract the 30-minute break for 480 net minutes. Divide by 60: exactly 8.0 hours. At $18.50 an hour, that day pays $148.00. An overnight example: 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM with no break is 360 - 1,320 + 1,440 = 480 minutes, again exactly 8.0 hours.
Practical Tips
Track gross and net separately. Your schedule shows gross time; your paycheck shows net. Confusion between the two causes most "my hours are wrong" disputes, and having both numbers written down settles them in seconds. If your employer rounds to the nearest quarter hour, do the rounding once at the end of the pay period on the total, not per shift, since per-shift rounding usually favors the house.
For weekly totals, add the daily decimals without rounding the days first. Five shifts of 7.92 hours total 39.6, but rounding each day to 7.9 first gives 39.5, and that missing tenth is six minutes of pay. Keep a simple log, date, start, end, break, net, and you will catch payroll mistakes that most people never notice. Overtime rules kick in past 40 hours a week under federal law, so an accurate weekly sum has real money attached.
Common Timesheet Mistakes to Avoid
The biggest mistake is forgetting the break. Five days of "9 to 5" feels like 40 hours, but with a 30-minute lunch it is 37.5 paid hours, a 2.5-hour gap that adds up to 130 hours a year. Always subtract unpaid breaks before multiplying by your rate. The second mistake is AM/PM confusion on overnight shifts: writing 7:00 instead of 7:00 AM after a midnight shift creates a negative-looking span that payroll software may reject or misread.
The third is rounding too early. Rounding each shift to the nearest quarter hour before adding the week systematically shaves minutes, and over a year those minutes become hours of unpaid work. Keep exact decimals through the whole pay period and round once at the end, if your employer rounds at all. Finally, know your overtime threshold. Federal law requires time-and-a-half past 40 hours in a week, so an accurate total is not just bookkeeping; it determines whether your paycheck is correct.
From Daily Hours to Weekly Paychecks
A week of five 8.0-hour shifts is 40.0 hours, and at $18.50 an hour that is $740.00 gross before taxes. Add a Saturday shift of 5.5 hours and the week becomes 45.5: the first 40 at straight time ($740.00) plus 5.5 at time-and-a-half ($27.75 an hour, or $152.63), for $892.63. This is why the weekly total matters more than any single day; overtime only exists at the week level.
Two-week pay periods double everything but keep the overtime math weekly: 40 hours in week one and 48 in week two pays 8 overtime hours, not 8 hours averaged away. If your schedule varies, log daily and let the week boundaries do the work. A simple spreadsheet with one row per shift and a weekly sum row catches the errors that cost real money, and it takes about two minutes a day to maintain.
A Second Worked Example: The Split Shift
Work 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM, take unpaid time off, then 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM, with a 30-minute unpaid meal break during the evening block. Morning: 11:00 minus 7:00 is 4 hours, no break. Evening: 8:00 PM (1,200 minutes) minus 3:00 PM (900 minutes) is 300 minutes gross, minus 30 for the meal, equals 270 minutes, or 4.5 hours. Total for the day: 8.5 hours. The gap between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM is not work time, so it never enters the math. Only count time on the clock, minus unpaid breaks.
At $16.75 an hour, 8.5 hours pays $142.38. Split shifts trip people up because they try to run one calculation across the whole day including the gap. Two clean calculations, one per block, then add. The calculator handles one block per run. Run it twice and add the decimals.
Hourly vs. Salaried: When Decimal Hours Still Matter
Salaried workers still need hour counts for project billing, client invoices, and usage tracking. A consultant billing $150 an hour who logs 6.75 hours instead of "about 7" keeps the invoice defensible and the client relationship clean. Freelancers live on this: decimal hours times the rate is the invoice, and sloppy time math is how money quietly leaks out of a project.
For hourly workers, the decimal is the paycheck. "7 hours 45 minutes" and 7.75 mean the same thing, but payroll systems, time clocks, and overtime calculations all run on decimals. Learning to read your own hours in decimal form is the fastest way to spot when a paycheck is light: multiply by your rate and compare before you assume the system is right.
Rounding Rules and the 7-Minute Rule
US federal rules allow employers to round clock times to the nearest quarter hour, as long as the rounding does not systematically favor the employer over time. The common implementation is the 7-minute rule: clock in at 8:52 and it rounds back to 8:45, because you are 7 minutes past the quarter. Clock in at 8:53 and it rounds forward to 9:00, because you are 8 minutes past. The break point sits at the midpoint of the 15-minute window.
What this means for you: rounding must average out. If your employer's system always seems to shave your time, keep your own log with exact times for a few weeks and compare. The Department of Labor position is clear that rounding cannot be used to avoid paying for all hours worked. Your own records, date, start, end, break, net, are the evidence if a dispute ever needs it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I count hours between two times?
Subtract the start time from the end time, then subtract any unpaid break. From 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM is 8.5 hours; minus a 30-minute lunch it is 8.0. The calculator above handles this plus overnight shifts that cross midnight, and it reports both decimal hours and hours:minutes.
How many hours is 9 to 5 with a lunch break?
Nine to five is 8 hours on the clock, minus lunch. With a 30-minute unpaid lunch it is 7.5 paid hours; with a full hour it is 7.0. Many people say they work 9 to 5 but are paid for 7.5, which matters when you convert to weekly totals: 37.5 hours, not 40.
How do you count hours for an overnight shift?
Add 24 hours to the end time when it falls after midnight, then subtract the start. An 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM shift is 7 minus 23 plus 24, which equals 8 hours. The calculator detects the rollover automatically, so you just enter the two times as they appear on the schedule.
What are decimal hours on a timesheet?
Decimal hours express time as a fraction of an hour: 7 hours 30 minutes is 7.5, and 8 hours 15 minutes is 8.25. Convert by dividing the minutes by 60. Payroll systems prefer decimals because multiplying by an hourly rate needs no extra conversion step.
Do I subtract lunch from hours worked?
Subtract lunch only if it is unpaid. US federal law does not require paid meal breaks, and most employers treat a 30-minute lunch as unpaid time off the clock. Short rest breaks under 20 minutes are generally paid. When in doubt, follow your employer policy and your state rules.
How many hours is 8am to 4:30pm?
From 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM is 8.5 hours before breaks. Subtract a 30-minute lunch for 8.0 paid hours. The half hour comes from the 30 minutes past 4:00, and 30 divided by 60 is 0.5, so the decimal answer is 8.5 total or 8.0 net.
How do I count weekly hours from daily shifts?
Calculate each day separately with breaks removed, then add the daily totals. Five days of 8.0 hours is 40.0. Keep the daily math exact rather than rounding early, because rounding each day before adding can drift the weekly total by 15 to 30 minutes.
What is 7:45 AM to 3:15 PM in hours?
From 7:45 AM to 3:15 PM is 7.5 hours. The span from 7:45 to 2:45 is 7 hours, plus 30 more minutes to 3:15, and 30 minutes is half an hour. With no break, that is 7.5 decimal hours or 7 hours 30 minutes.