The Hours Calculator answers a deceptively simple question: how much time is there between two clock times? It handles the parts people get wrong by hand — breaks, overnight shifts, and converting minutes into the decimal hours payroll actually uses. It is the lighter companion to a full time card: enter two times, optionally a break, and read the duration three ways.
How the Hours Calculator works
Every time is converted to minutes since midnight, so 9:00 AM becomes 540 and 5:00 PM becomes 1020. The duration is simply end − start. When the end is earlier than the start — say 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM — the shift has crossed midnight, so a full day (1440 minutes) is added before subtracting any break. The final figure is clamped at zero, so a break longer than the worked span returns 0 rather than a negative number.
Minutes, decimal hours, and 12h vs 24h
The single most common payroll error is mixing up minutes and decimal hours. Forty-five minutes is 0.75 of an hour, not 0.45. The conversion is always minutes ÷ 60. This tool shows both at once so you never have to guess. The 12-hour/24-hour toggle is about display and input convenience — internally the math is identical. If AM/PM ever trips you up, switch to 24-hour: there is no noon-vs-midnight ambiguity on a 24-hour clock.
Payroll, time cards, and where to go next
For a single span or a quick day-of blocks total, this calculator is all you need. If you also need to apply an hourly rate, overtime rules, or a weekly schedule, reach for a dedicated time card or timesheet tool — this is the lighter, single-purpose sibling. To work with whole calendar dates instead of clock times, see the Date Duration Calculator, and for converting one unit of time into another use the Time Converter.