Hours, Minutes & Decimal Time
Entering 7 hours 30 minutes as 7.30 decimal hours loses 12 minutes. Thirty minutes is half an hour, so the correct decimal value is 7.5.
A timesheet example
Five days of 7 hours 30 minutes give 37 hours 30 minutes, or 37.5 decimal hours. By contrast, 37.30 decimal hours means 37 hours 18 minutes. Add minutes first, then divide by 60 before multiplying by an hourly rate.
Breaks and midnight
A 09:00–17:00 shift lasts eight hours. Subtracting a 30-minute unpaid break gives 7.5 working hours. A 22:00–06:00 shift also spans eight wall-clock hours because its end is on the next day. Daylight saving transitions need actual timestamps rather than this simple clock model.
Before you copy a number
Check whether the destination field expects HH:MM or decimal hours. Separate paid from unpaid breaks. Overtime premiums and tax are different calculations from elapsed work time.