Time Clock Conversion for Payroll: Minutes to Decimal Chart

Calculating working hours for paying salaries is one of the most important responsibilities of a business. 

If all of your employees are using different systems or time clock apps—or don't use any payroll software at all—you may want to consider using a time clock conversion chart. This way, everyone can stay on the same page when it comes to tracking their work hours and you’ll have more accurate calculations.

We've put together a step-by-step guide to help you through that process, together with a minutes to decimal chart to make your payroll calculation easier. ​

Let’s get into it.

Know your employees’ exact time in decimals: Minutes to decimal chart

A decimal time chart shows what each minute is in decimal hours. It’s helpful when calculating employee salaries and saves a lot of time. 

For easier reference, take a look at the decimal minute conversion chart.

Minutes: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20Decimal hours: .02 - .03 - .05 - .07 - .10 - .07 - .10 - .10  - .12 - .13 - .15  - .17 - .18 - .20 - .22 - .23 - .25 - .27 - .28 - .30 - .32 - .33

----Minutes: 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27 - 28 - 29 - 30 - 31 - 32 - 33 - 34 - 35 - 36 - 37 - 38 - 39 - 40

Decimal: .35 - .37 - .38 - .40 - .42 - .43 - .45 - .47 - .48 - .50 - .52 - .53 - .55 - .57 - .58 - .60 - .62 - .63 - .65 - .67

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Minutes: 41 - 42 - 43 - 44 - 45 - 46 - 47 - 48 - 49 - 50 - 51 - 52 - 53 - 54 - 55 - 56 - 57 - 58 - 59 - 60

Decimal: .68 - .70 - .72 - .73 - .75 - .77 - .78 - .80 - .82 - .83 - .87 - .88 - .90 - .92 - .93 - .95 - .97 - .98 - 1.0

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What is time clock conversion?

Time clock conversion is the process of converting your timesheets from hours to decimal format. It's vital for employees who work different shifts, as it makes calculating and paying salaries easier. 

For this, you can use a decimal conversion chart, calculate manually or use software to automate this process.

Because one hour has 60 minutes (and not 100), it’s important to convert hours to decimals so that you can have an accurate overview of how much your employees are working and how much you need to pay them.

Let’s look at a quick example.

Anthony is a landscaper who usually works around 20-25 hours per week and his hourly rate is $25/hour. For the first week of November, he worked a total of 22 hours and 43 minutes. 

If you were to calculate his salary without converting the minutes to decimals, the total for that week would come to:22,43 x 25 = $560.75But as we’ve previously mentioned, this calculation isn’t correct because those 43 minutes are calculated on the basis that an hour has 100 minutes.If we convert the minutes to decimals first, we would have:

43 / 60= 0.72 Now, we can calculate Anthony’s full paycheck for that week:22,72 x 25 = $568

It may seem like a small difference, but not converting minutes to decimals means you risk:

• Underpaying your employees

• Inconsistent payroll processing

• Unhappy employees

• Inaccurate budget planning

A timesheet conversion from minutes and hours in decimals means Anthony will be paid exactly what he is owed for the week.

How to convert minutes to decimals for payroll?

Decimals are used for payroll calculations because they are more precise than whole numbers. To help you convert minutes to decimals for payroll, follow these 4 steps:

1. Calculate the total number of working hours and minutes

2. Divide the minutes by 60

3. Write only the first 2 decimal places

4. Send to payroll

Let’s get into more detail.

Step 1 - Calculate the total number of working hours and minutes

First, calculate your employees’ total number of working hours and minutes. It’s much easier to convert time in decimals only once, rather than multiple times. 

If you have a time tracking tool, then your calculation would be automatic and you can immediately skip to the last step.

Step 2 - Divide the minutes by 60

After you have a total number of working hours and minutes, divide the minutes by 60. Since an hour has 60 minutes, you can find the decimal hours by using the base 10 decimal system. 

For example, 7 hours and 15 minutes in decimal hours would be 7:25. This is because dividing 15 by 60 means you get 0.25. 

Step 3 - Write only the first 2 decimal places 

As a rule of thumb, decimal hours can only show 2 decimal places. In these cases, you would have to round up the second number. 

For example, 10 minutes in decimal hours is 0.17. 

When you divide 10 by 60, you get 0.16666666666. And since you can only show the first two decimal places, we would need to round up the repeating “6” to a 7, and the final decimal format would be 0.17.

Similarly, this would mean that:

• 20 minutes in decimal hours is 0.33

• 25 minutes in decimal hours is 0.42

• 30 minutes in decimal hours is 0.50

• 35 minutes in decimal hours is 0.58

• 40 minutes in decimal hours is 0.67

• 45 minutes in decimal hours is 0.75

• 50 minutes in decimal hours is 0.83

Step 4 - Send to payroll

Finally, after you’ve converted your minutes to decimals, the timesheet can be handed over to the HR department for further processing.

Use the Atto App and eliminate decimal time conversion mistakes

Time clock conversion is a tedious little task when calculating payroll since it usually has to be done manually if you’re not automating it. Whether you use a time conversion chart or convert time to decimals manually, you might want to think of using software to help you save more time when calculating payroll.

If you want to eliminate decimal time conversion mistakes, then Atto will be your best friend. 

Atto is a time-tracking tool that automatically tracks employee working hours in just a few taps. Employees can easily clock in and out to record their time. You can then generate timesheets whenever you need them. 

Because Atto offers the possibility of setting hourly wages for your employees, you skip the numerous calculations for payroll. You can generate timesheets that show how much you need to pay each employee and simply forward it to HR.

Sounds like something that might interest you?

Try Atto for free.

Key takeaways on the payroll conversion chart

A minutes to decimal chart is an easier way to convert your employee’s working hours to decimal numbers. This makes payroll easier and more accurate. 

When converting minutes to decimals, you should divide the total minutes by 60. Write the first two decimal numbers and calculate the total salary sum based on the employee’s hourly rate.

To avoid payroll mistakes and underpaying your employees, use a time-tracking tool like Atto. With Atto, you’ll automate the process of tracking working hours and calculating salaries.