Comments on: Calculating time in Google Sheets: subtract, sum and extract date and time units

It's time to talk about the ways of calculating time in Google Sheets. We'll discuss the ways of finding time difference in detail, see how to sum dates and time together, and learn to display only date or time units and set them apart completely. Continue reading →

Comments page 4. Total comments: 393

  1. Hi! My hope is that there is a sum formula for adding song lengths that contain hours, minutes, and seconds. I have them set up in this format: 01:04:35 but it doesn't add it as hours, minutes, and seconds... Is there a formula? Do I need to put each quantity in separate cells? hours in one, minutes in one, and seconds in another? thanks!!!!!

  2. Is there a way when subtracting time to automatically convert time format of minutes to hours as my goal is like this:

    On A1 is start time say 8:00 AM and on A2 is end time as 8:40AM, and it returns the duration on A3 as "40 mins".

    What I aim is that if it's more than 60 mins, say A1 is 8:00AM and A2 is 9:20AM, it automatically formats A3 result to "1 hr 20 mins"

    1. Hello John,

      Try this formula:
      =IF(MINUTE(A2-A1)>60, (HOUR(A2-A1)&" hours, "&MINUTE(A2-A1)&" minutes"), A2-A1)

  3. i have to convert data in 3-3 hours conversion ex- if one message is popup on 12:00am then display 12:00am to 3:00am time slot, other message is came on 7:00pm then display 6:00pm to 9:00pm time slot

  4. Please could you help with the following? I am not sure what kind of formula should be used. I wanted to make use of a screenshot of an example of what I want, but it won't allow me to paste a screenshot.

    I need to set up a program for a dancing competition. I have different sections in the dancing competition, with each section have different time limits per performer. So here is an example:

    Section: Solo Start time: 9:00 AM

    Competitor 1 (Maximum time: 3min:30sec) (Grace time: 2min)
    Competitor 2 (Maximum time: 3min:30sec) (Grace time: 2min)
    Competitor 3 (Maximum time: 3min:30sec) (Grace time: 2min)
    Competitor 4 (Maximum time: 3min:30sec) (Grace time: 2min)
    Competitor 5 (Maximum time: 3min:30sec) (Grace time: 2min)
    (Grace time after each section: 2min)

    End time: ?

    Section: Improvisation Start time: SAME AS END TIME - ?

    Competitor 1 (Maximum time: 2min:0sec) (Grace time: 1min)
    Competitor 2 (Maximum time: 2min:0sec) (Grace time: 1min)
    Competitor 3 (Maximum time: 2min:0sec) (Grace time: 1min)

    So I want the condition to be, if it is a solo, then maximum time per competitor is 3min:30sec with 2min grace for each competitor, with 2min grace after section. Start time is 9AM, so what will the end time be after section has ended?

    Hope the above example makes sense.
    Thanks in advance

    1. Hello Antoinette,

      Feel free to share an editable copy of your spreadsheet with us (support@apps4gs.com) with 2 sheets: (1) a copy of your source data (2) the result you expect to get. I kindly ask you to shorten the tables to 10-20 rows. I'll look into it.

      Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only and don't monitor its Inbox. Please do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment.

      1. Thanks so much Natalia. I have shared an editable sheet. It is just an example, as I cannot send the original sheet, because in our country there are laws against sharing people's information (especially children). I hope it makes sense. I do know what I want is quite complicated.

        1. Thank you for sharing your spreadsheet, Antoinette.

          I created a new sheet – Copy of the Result – and entered all formulas there. I use the IF function to return the times per competitors based on the section mentioned in A2. You can add more conditions for other sections with the help of nested IF or IFS to reuse the same formula for other sections as well.

          The total duration is a simple sum of all those time units.

          Hope this helps! Please let me know if this is what you need :)

          1. Thanks so much for your help.
            I was trying to make it very complicated, and it actually is not.
            This really helped a lot.

            Hope you enjoy your day.

  5. Hey Natalia, hope you are well,

    Just making sure you got my message on (May 20, 2022 at 5:14 pm)

    1. Hi Jordan,

      Sorry I couldn't reply earlier. I replied a few minutes back though, please see my comment below.

      If you still need some help with your formulas, please consider checking out the blog post we wrote about the IF function. Or share your spreadsheet with us (support@apps4gs.com) with 2 sheets: (1) a copy of your source data (2) the result you expect to get. Please shorten the tables to 10-20 rows.

      Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only and don't monitor its Inbox. Please do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment.

      1. Hi Natalia,

        I have invited you to my Google Sheets for you, i think it would be the best way to figure it out.

        1. Hi Jordan,

          Thank you for sharing the file. Seeing the whole picture, we've come up with another solution. I entered the formulas on the Copy sheet, please take a look.

  6. Hi Natalia,

    I have been reading through your blog posts and they are really tremendous. Need your support on one of my on-going problems which I am trying to solve through formula in Google-Sheets :

    1. end_date = Available = (Today())
    2. Number of months = Available in decimal = (4.1) months
    3. start_date = ? (how to compute it)

    Your help in this would be much appreciated.

    Best,
    Deep

    1. Hi Deep,

      I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't fully understand your task. Is that number of months shows the duration from the start time?

  7. if I want to use =TEXT(B2-A2,"h:mm") to subtract time but I want it to display the result as 3h 2m how do I format it to do display it as such?

    1. I ended up figuring it out after days of trying things it was super easy. This is for anyone interested.

      Times:
      D2 - 5:18:00 PM
      E2 - 8:20:00 PM

      =HOUR(E2-D2) & "h " & MINUTE(E2-D2) & "m"

      Result - 3h 2m

      1. Hi Victor,

        Sorry I couldn't reply to you earlier. Happy to see you've got it figured out :) Thanks for sharing your solution!

        1. I ran into an issue today where it won't subtract backwards times like pm to am. Such as

          12:23 AM - 9:50 PM

          It gives an error because it's a negative number and I still haven't found a workaround

          1. Hi Victor,

            The result I'm getting with this set of times is 21h 27m.

            For me to be able to assist you better, please share a small sample spreadsheet with us (support@apps4gs.com) with 2 sheets: (1) a copy of your source data with the formulas that don't work (2) the result you expect to get. I kindly ask you to shorten the tables to 10-20 rows.

            Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only and don't monitor its Inbox. Please do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment.

            1. Yes but that result is backwards and not correct. 12:23 Am is right after midnight. If you subtract midnight to 9PM that is only 3 hours we are trying to subtract not add.

              I'm building a sheet to track all of my forex trading. I want to enter the time I start a trade and the time I end a trade and it tell me how long that trade went for. So I can keep an idea on how long these trades are lasting. Yesterday I started a trade at 9:50 PM and it went until 12:23 AM which is right after midnight. So I need it to subtract the time.

              The result I'm looking for is 2h 33m

              1. Can you give me a sample sheet that I can take a look at. I'm currently using two cells to collect this data. One for just the date and one for just the time.

                4 cells total. Date, Time Start, Time End, Time completed

              2. Hello Victor,

                If you'd like to take a look at how the formats work, you will still need to go to the Format settings to see the difference. So you can just literally (1) enter 9:50 PM into one cell and both, time & date, e.g. 06/02/2022 9:00 PM, in another, (2) select both these cells, (3) and go to Format > Number a few times and try to apply different formats, including those with the date unit. You'll instantly see what I mean about the dates.

                For me to be able to help you better, I kindly ask you to share your sample sheet with us: support@apps4gs.com. You don't need to provide your entire document. A sheet with a few rows showing your source data and a sheet with the result you expect to get is more than enough. Thank you.

              3. Thank you for the update, Victor.

                If you enter time without a date, Google Sheets treats these times as from the same day. You can check that by changing the format to Date time.
                So I'd advise you to enter both date and time to your cells (just set the format as Time to keep the date hidden) and you should get the correct results.

  8. We need formula for if working hours is 6 and 1 person working 6.5 hours and we need to show he worked 0.5 hour extra (fixed time 10:00AM to 04:00PM) (Work time 10:00 AM to 4:30:00PM) actual extra work 0.5 hour

    what is the formula for that

  9. Hello Natalia,

    I use google sheets to do wages and I need a bit of help to sort an issue.

    Regular work hours are 9am to 6pm (important to remember) and I'm trying to subtract overtime hours or minutes that my employees work.

    For example, Start time is (7am) and the finish time is (9pm), I'd then like it to separate in another cell the 2 overtime hours from the starting point (7am-9am) and the 3 overtime hours from the finish point (6pm-9pm)

    Look forward to hearing back from you.

    1. Hello Jordan,

      Assuming your start time is in A2 and end time is in B2, try these IF formulas in C2 and D2:

      • for C2:
        =IFS(OR(A2<TIME(9,0,0),A2>TIME(9,0,0)),TIME(9,0,0)-A2,A2=TIME(9,0,0),"")
      • for D2:
        =IFS(OR(B2>TIME(18,0,0),B2<TIME(18,0,0)),B2-TIME(18,0,0),B2=TIME(18,0,0),"")

      1. Hey Natalia, thank you for getting back to me.

        So far the C2 format is working and I'm assuming that you missed out a comma in this area [A2TIME] but I have replaced it with [A2,TIME] and it's working.

        For the D2 format, I am getting an error message, see the error message below.
        [Wrong number of arguments to IFS. Expected at least 2 arguments, but received 1 arguments.]

        1. Hi Jordan,

          My apologies, the formulas appeared broken due to > and < symbols. I've edited the formulas, please take a look now.

        2. I have also just noticed, that when I add the start time 10am. In C2 I get [23:00:00]. Is there any way to make it 00:00:00 if the start time was anytime after 9am?

          1. At the moment, the formulas calculate the negative number if the start time is after 9am. But if you'd rather see 00:00:00, then you need to write out each condition and the required result in the formula:
            =IFS(A2<TIME(9,0,0),TIME(9,0,0)-A2,A2=TIME(9,0,0),"",A2>TIME(9,0,0),TIME(0,0,0))

            1. Hiya Natalia,

              I'm not sure what I even wrote in the last reply, I'm confused myself lol.

              So at the moment with the new [FORMAT] you provided, whenever I type anything after 9am it says 00:00:00 which is correct and id now like another format to do the same for when I write a time that is before 18:00:00 it should say 00:00:00 and it would only count the time after 18:00:00.

              [FORMAT] you provided earlier:
              =IFS(A2TIME(9,0,0),TIME(0,0,0))

              Another note, not a huge issue, so when using the [FORMAT] and typing a time for example 10:00:00, it says 00:00:00. Is it possible to just have it blank using the '' ''?

              1. I am trying to type the format you sent me on (May 19, 2022 at 6:49 am) Spain time.

              2. Hi Jordan,

                For when the time is before 18, the drill is the same: you need to put that as a pair of "condition, it result" in the formula. Just like I did with 9, but only with 18 this time:
                =IFS(A2<TIME(18,0,0),TIME(0,0,0),...)

                If you prefer empty cells rather than 00:00, yes, feel free to use "" instead.
                =IFS(A2<TIME(18,0,0),TIME(0,0,0),...)

                Btw, I still suggest you look through this blog post about the IF function :) You just may find the answers to your questions there much faster than I can reply :)

              3. Its done it again, let me try another font:
                [=̶I̶F̶S̶(̶A̶2̶̶T̶I̶M̶E̶(̶9̶,̶0̶,̶0̶)̶,̶T̶I̶M̶E̶(̶0̶,̶0̶,̶0̶)̶)̶]

              4. I can see the confusion now, I'm trying to type the full [FORMAT] in the reply but for some reason it changed and doesn't post the hole thing?

                Hopefully this works, this is what I'm trying to type:
                =???(??????(?,?,?),????(?,?,?))

            2. Thank you ever so much for the help you have provided so far.

              This format:
              =IFS(A2TIME(9,0,0),TIME(0,0,0))

              What would the format be for a time before 6pm?

              1. You're most welcome, Jordan :)

                As for time before 6pm – if you'd like to add a condition for when the start time is before 6, just add the same part you quoted to the formula but change 9 to 6. If you mean you'd like to add conditions for the end time as well, please specify what you'd like to return if it's before/after/equals 6.

  10. I typed a start time colum and an end time colum via the 13:25 format (the date is on a separate colum): I don't understand how to calculate the subtraction : meaning the differnce between them.
    How can I do that please?

  11. Hello - trying to get google sheets to auto calculate clock out time for me - IE i put in / out time in for monday- thursday, and only in time on friday. Id like google to do the math for the final clock out, except it giving me negative total hours and the rest of the numbers dont seem to jive....

    1. Hello Vernon,

      For me to be able to help you, please share an editable copy of your spreadsheet along with your formula with us: support@apps4gs.com. I'll look into it.

      Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only and don't monitor its Inbox. Please do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment.

      1. sent the link via gmail

        1. Thank you for the example, Vernon.

          Your formula doesn't work because you use 40 as an integer, not as a number of hours. I've entered the correct formula to F6:
          =B6+(TIME(40,0,0)-SUM(D2,D3,D4,D5))

  12. I have a number which is 16.80
    so since there is no 0.80 in minutes, it has to be converted to 0.70+0.20 so time becomes 17.20
    Want to represent the time as 17.20
    How do I do this

  13. I'm having an issue where the formula =(f2-e2,"h:mm") is returning times that are off by a minute. For example cell e2 is 01:18 and cell f2 is 03:38. The above formula completes as 02:19 when it should be 02:20. This is happening on a significant portion of data I am trying to create.

    1. Hello Jason,

      You formula doesn't work on my side at all (formula parse error). However a simple =F2-E2 returns 02:20.
      For me to be able to help you, please share an editable copy of your spreadsheet with the formula that returns 02:19 with me: support@apps4gs.com. I'll look into it.

  14. =E10-D10+G10-F10+I10-H10+K10-J10+M10-L10+O10-N10+Q10-P10

    I am trying to calculate wages and I need the spreadsheet to multiply hourly pay by hour worked for multiple employees. Specifically I need a specific cell to multiply and add 6 cells together across 3 rows and it is returning decimal numbers and that cell is affecting another cell i have that is supposed to divide that information with another cell and because i am getting decimal numbers it is throwing off the end result that i am looking for.

    1. Hello Adam,

      I'm sorry but your question is not clear.

      For me to be able to help you, please share a small sample spreadsheet with me (support@apps4gs.com) with 2 sheets: (1) a copy of your source data (2) the result you expect to get (the result sheet is of great importance and often gives us a better understanding than any text description). I kindly ask you to shorten the tables to 10-20 rows.

      Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only and don't monitor its Inbox. Please do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment.

      Thank you.

  15. Hi, I have a sheet to work out staff hours and when time worked is over 24 hours for example 33:20:00 the formula i use to covnert this into a decimal amount of hours does not work and give me the amount of hours worked over 24 hours. I am using this formula below:

    =(HOUR(E59)+MINUTE(E59)/70+SECOND(E59)/3600). I have tried changing the data type of the cell to [hh]:mm:ss but this still doesnt work. Do you have any suggestions?

    Thank you!

    1. Hi Declan,

      33:20:00 already shows the duration of hours (33). You can either multiply this by 24 (see Example 3. Time difference in hours, minutes, and seconds; make sure the resulting cell is formatted as Number) or change the time format into elapsed hours only.

  16. Hi, thank you for this info.
    Just FYI, I think there is a typo in the extract the date/time section. Formula 2, says A2=B2, and I to match the image, it should say A2-B2.

    1. Hi Natalia,

      Thank you for your feedback!

      That is definitely a typo. I've just corrected it, thanks a lot! :)

  17. Hello,

    How would I check to see if a time is within a time range when the range goes past midnight? (i.e: The time to check is 03:00 and the time range is (21:00 - 5:00). Any help will be appreciated, thanks!

      1. Hello Natalia,

        The range is in one cell (i.e 5:00pm - 5:00am). I can parse out the separate times, but I can't get it to realize that a time (i.e 3:00am) is in between the range since the time value is lower than the beginning of the range.

        If it makes it easier to have each time in it's own cell, I can create helper columns (split) to separate them.

        1. Hello Jay,

          Assuming that 3:00am is in A2, 5:00pm – in B2, and 5:00am – in C2, the following formula will return TRUE if the time falls within the range, otherwise, you'll see FALSE:
          =OR(AND(B2>A2,C2>A2),AND(B2>A2,C2>A2))

  18. Hi Natalia, I'm sorry if this has already been asked/answered. I wondered if there was a way to add 2 seconds to a time formatted in a 00:00:00 AM/PM format. Ex( start time is 10:05:03 AM, and I want the end time to be 10:05:05 AM) I am trying to get a formula to add markers for video/audio edits quickly. This has been rattling around in my head for a while now, and I can't seem to figure it out! I would be super grateful if you knew how to accomplish this!

  19. Hello! I am having difficulty doing a duration countdown. I have cells with a date & time something is due (call it A1) and another cell with the NOW() function in it (call it B1) , those both work. When I do B1-A1 it returns a duration which counts down, however it's not the correct time. I read that google uses a different reference year and add a +1 at the end which worked for some, but as they get closer to less than 24 hours they then add 31 days on the front. For one that has 17 hours 33 mins remaining it states 31 days 17 hours 33 mins remaining.

    Any ideas?
    best,
    mattkwi

    1. Hello mattkwi,

      Can you please specify the exact date time from A1 and the result your B1-A1 returns so I could understand your case better?

  20. Hello, I'm trying to fix so that i can have name down in A, Times in minutes, seconds, and milliseconds in B, and the difference between them in C

    Example
    A B C
    Name Time Difference
    Rodney 1m:25s:754ms 0.000
    Peter 1m:26s:516ms ??????

    please help! :D Thank you :D

  21. Is it possible in Google Sheets to subtract 2 durations that are not linked to an AM/PM time? I am a swimming coach and I am hoping to use Sheets to calculate the difference between two race times. For example, I have a swimmer who swims the 50 yard butterfly. Her current time is 1:05.39 (mm, ss , ms) and her goal time is 35.83 (mm, ss, ms). Is there a formula I can use for this? One of the challenges is that I am subtracting different values (minutes and seconds capping out at 60 and then converting, milliseconds going all the way up to 100 before converting)

    Thanks for any feedback or guidance you can give!

    1. Hello Else-Marie,

      For Google Sheets to understand the exact format of the entered values, try the following:

      1. Enter your time records as a full duration, including zeros for hours: 00:01:05.39 and 00:00:35.83
      2. Go to Format > Number > Custom number format, and apply the following format to such numbers: hh:mm:ss.000

      Then try calculate these durations, it should work.

      1. Hi, I am also a coach that uses race times. I am having a very hard time as well.

        I have many athletes that have times in (mm, ss , ms) ONLY.

        I tried to use the format of hh:mm:ss.000 however it calculates to a 24 hour model. I am not using any hours at all in my splits for racing.

        I need something like this
        Athelte A- 1:04.75
        Goal time- 1:03.09
        I need the differences so it would be -1.66 so that my athlete knows that they need to drop 1 seconds and 66 mil seconds.

        Thanks for all your help

        1. Hi Andrew,

          If setting the custom number format doesn't work for you, try the custom date and time format instead with the following:
          Elapsed minutes (01):Elapsed seconds (01).Miliseconds (01)

          Make sure to apply the same format to the resulting cells.

  22. Hi,

    I think I read most of the comments and unfortunately I cannot find a solution to my problem.

    I need to add 52 hours to a date (08/11/2021 12:02:36) my problem is that I want to exclude the weekends.

    In this case A1 = start date and my formula is =A1+time(52,0,0), I tried using =WORKDAY.INTL but it doesn't work.

    Any help would be great and I love the your work.

    1. Hi Vytaute,

      Your formula to add 52 hours is incorrect. Here I mention the correct way (how to add more than 24 hours).

      And here's a formula to add those 52 hours ignoring the weekends:
      =IF(OR(WEEKDAY(A1+(52/24))=1,WEEKDAY(A1+(52/24))=7),IF(WEEKDAY(A1+(52/24))=1,A1+DAY(1)+(52/24),A1+DAY(2)+(52/24)),A1+(52/24))

      It adds 52 hours first and checks if the resulting date is Saturday or Sunday. If so, it adds 2 or 1 day correspondingly.

  23. Is it possible to calculate elapsed time in Sheets using a defined start date/time, and the CURRENT date/time as the end point? For example, if I specified a start date and time, is there a way for it to output the number of days, or preferably hours that have elapsed since then?

    1. Hi BJ,

      You can use NOW() and TODAY() functions instead of the specified end date/time, but these functions are volatile meaning they update themselves each time you open the spreadsheet or make edits anywhere in the file. Hence, your result will constantly update based on today's date/time.

      But you can also use these functions to get the required results first and then turn them into values to stop further recalculations.

  24. I am banging my head about this. I have a daily datetime stamps of a typical day at work starting at "10/22/2021 08:30:00 A" and ending at "10/22/2021 04:15:00 P". How can I filter out employees based on certain times of the day? Say 7 out of 10 employees start at 10/22/2021 12:15:00 P and end at 10/22/2021 03:15:00 P. How can I filter out those employees?

    Any help is greatly appreciated.

  25. Hi! I've used the following formula to find the duration of daily writing sprints:

    =IF(INT(E3-D3)>0, INT(E3-D3) & " days, ","") & IF(HOUR(E3-D3)>0, HOUR(E3-D3) & " hour(s), ","") & IF(MINUTE(E3-D3)>0, MINUTE(E3-D3) & " minutes ","") & IF(SECOND(E3-D3)>0, SECOND(E3-D3) & " seconds","")

    Now I want the sum of the duration times to find the total for the week. How can I do this?

    Once I do that, I'd like to sum across multiple pages/sheets within the document so I can find the total for the month. Is this possible?

    1. Hi Liz,

      For me to be able to help you better, please share a small sample spreadsheet with us (support@apps4gs.com) with 2 sheets: (1) a copy of your source data (2) the result you expect to get. The result sheet is of great importance and often gives a better understanding than any text description. I kindly ask you to shorten the tables to 10-20 rows. I'll look into it.

      Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only, please do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment. I'll look into it.

      1. I have shared my spreadsheet example with you as requested.

        1. Hi Liz,

          I'm sorry for the delay in my reply, I was on sick leave. Please let me know if you're still looking for a solution, I'll look into your file then.

  26. You must get over 800 things

  27. Hi,
    I've got a starting date and a number of shift, If i sum the starting date and the shift it will find a delviery date, but I would love to avoid Holidays and week ends.
    Could you help me?

  28. Hi, is there a way to make it so it can calculate the time between two time frames if they're in the same cell?

    i.e

    8:00-13:00

    1. Hi Ryan,

      Yes, RIGHT & LEFT + SEARCH will help you out:
      =RIGHT(A2, SEARCH("-", A2))-LEFT(A2, SEARCH("-", A2)-1)

      Don't forget to apply the Duration format to the result.

      1. Thank you so much! I was starting to think that excel has skipped this part!!

        1. Hi,

          These are instructions for Google Sheets :) Note that Excel functions may have different arguments.

  29. hey, I was just wondering how to calculate elapsed time from velocity and distance in google sheets.

    1. Hello Tom,

      Could you please provide a couple of examples of your source records and of the result you'd like to get?

  30. Hi!

    This is article is pretty helpful. Do you have any idea of how to calculate time within/outside of business hours? For instance, if Column A's data is 1/1/2021 5:20AM and Column B's data is 1/6/2021 2:30PM, I'd like the total time elapsed minus the time we're unavailable (I can provide the business hours - but in this example let's say we're completely closed Sat/Sun and are open from 10am-5pm Mon-Friday)?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks

    1. Hi AC,

      Thanks for stopping by our blog! :)

      Assuming your start time is in A2, end time – in B2, opening time – F2, closing time – G2, the following formula will do the trick:
      =(NETWORKDAYS(A2,B2)-1)*($G$2-$F$2)+MOD(B2,1)-MOD(A2,1)

      If there are any special holidays you'd like to take into account, you can set them right in the NETWORKDAYS function. You'll find a tutorial about it in this blog post.

  31. Hi! First I absolutely love this post and all of your kind responses. This has been so helpful to me.
    Second, I am trying to work out a formula I am hoping you can help with. I want a formula to calculate the duration of time (in decimal form such as 1.25 for an hour and 15 minutes) if the time start/end is entered manually. I can do this perfectly using your above suggestions IF I ENTER THE TIME IN MILITARY TIME ONLY.

    I want this to calculate the exact same way by being able to enter the time as you normally such as start at 11:00 and end at 2:00 without it resulting in a negative number. Is there any way to do this?

    THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!

    1. Hi Cait,
      Appreciate your lovely feedback!

      I described how to calculate the time difference in decimals in the 3rd example here.

      However, if you use timestamps like this: start at 11:00 and end at 02:00, your spreadsheet won't understand that they belong to different days. You need to add days as well (19/08/2021 02:00:00) and then format cells to display the timestamp only. Then the time difference will be calculated correctly (a positive number).

  32. Can I insert Live Countdown in Google Sheets?

    1. Hello Rezu,

      Yes, but we don't have a tutorial on our website. If you Google a bit, you'll find plenty of instructions, even demo videos, along with templates to use.

  33. In my Spreadsheet, Whenever I input a data in a row Timestamp is auto added in this format 8/17/2021 20.05.31. I want that a countdown of 48 hours from the inputted Date and time. Can you help me? What would be the formula for subtracting 48 hour from the timestamp?

  34. Hello there!
    I´m trying to figure out how to get a timespan from a list of dates/times but cant seem to figure it out.
    For example:

    10/06/2020 19:28:55
    15/06/2020 02:39:43
    15/06/2020 06:30:04
    16/06/2020 23:50:49

    I want to see the elapsed timeframe between these different times.

    10/06/2020 19:28:55 - 4 days, 5 hours, 10 minutes, 52 seconds till below time
    15/06/2020 02:39:43 - 0 days, 3 hours, 50 minutes, 21 seconds, etc....
    15/06/2020 06:30:04 - etc.etc.

    Anyone know if this is possible and how i can make this appliable to a long list of dates and times?

    1. Hello Niklas,

      Try a formula like this:
      =INT(J4-J3)&" days "&TEXT(J4-J3,"h"" hours ""m"" minutes ""s"" seconds""")

      1. how can I get the "days" to just show up as 24 hours - for example,
        Start time: 09/21/2022 08:00:00
        End time 09/22/2022 13:00:00 with formula =INT(J4-J3)&" days "&TEXT(J4-J3,"h"" hours ""m"" minutes ""s"" seconds""") it would display 1 days 5 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds....
        how can it show results as: 29 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds?

        1. Hello Claudia,
          try to simply subtract times (e.g. B2-A2) first and then apply the custom number format. See the very last tip in the Example 3 in this section.

  35. Good night!

    My goal is to add up all the hours worked in a month in a single cell.

    That is, if I work:
    07/04: 4:30 hours
    5/07: 9 hours
    06/07: 15 hours
    07/10: 8 hours
    07/15: 3 hours
    07/20: 16 hours
    I would like to get a cell that sums everything (= 55:30 hours)

    I have tried with SUM and changing the format to "hours elapsed: minutes elapsed" or "hours: minutes" but I get absurd results (for example 2:30 or 26, never 55 and a half hours)

    Is there a simple way to solve this? The fewer cells you use, the better.

    1. hello,

      how you solved it ?
      what is formula of this problem ?
      please tell me

    2. Ok, I found the reason why SUMA was not working for me.

      In the working range from 18h to 24h, the "24" interprets it as 00: 00h but NOT the 00: 00h at the end of the day and yes as 00: 00h at the beginning of the day (that is, -18 hours instead of +6 hours)

      I managed to change that and it already works fine for me.

  36. Hi!
    I am trying to use a formula to determine hours worked in decimal form when we have shifts that often go past 12am. I need a way to do this where the outcome is not negative and can be all done in one formula, is that possible?

    For example:
    I have tried using both:
    =TEXT(B2-A2, "h.m")-0.3 to try and get hours worked minus break time but this will not convert to decimal
    = ((B2-A2)*24)-0.5 but this one causes negative numbers for any shifts that go past 12am

    1. Hi Alexa,

      You can turn negative numbers into positive by embedding your formula into the ABS function.

      If this still doesn't solve your task, please consider sharing a short sample table with us – support@apps4gs.com. I'll look into it.
      Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only and don't monitor its Inbox. Please do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment.

  37. hi can anyone help
    How To Convert Time To Decimal Over 24 Hours In Google sheet?
    =HOUR(A1)+MINUTE(A1)/60

    1. Hi Zalmen,

      I mention decimals in the following section: "Example 3. Time difference in hours, minutes, and seconds.". It's in the first part of the blog post, please take a look.

      Also, here are some comments where I suggested formulas: Also, here are some comments where I suggested formulas: SUM and convert to decimal, format values correctly to see decimals.

      If you're still unable to get the result, please specify (1) the exact time value you're trying to convert, (2) the formula you're using (3) and the result you're getting. I'll do my best to help.

  38. Hello,
    I am trying to create a google chart that automatically populates the 24 hour mark from the date and time I input in column A.

    Example:
    A
    6/17/2021 8:09 pm

    B- will automatically populate the date and time 24 hours later
    6/19/2021 8:09 pm

    Please assist

    1. Hello Kim,

      Just make sure the Data range that is used by the chart includes all cells (even empty ones) that will be filled in future. For example, B2:B100. Once they are filled, they will be shown in the chart as well.

      If that's not really the problem, consider sharing an editable copy of your spreadsheet with us (support@apps4gs.com).
      Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only and don't monitor its Inbox. Please do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment.

      I'll look into it and try my best to help.

  39. if I want to multiply time?

    For example I have a base time of 0:08 minutes and I want to multiply it by for eaxmple "10", in which the result would be 1:20 hours?

    I've tried =0:08*10 but it gives me #ERROR!

    What should I do?

    1. Hello Mike,

      You're getting the error because when you enter =0:08*10 that 0:08 is treated as text. This happens because Google Sheets doesn't see date and time the same way you see them. Please read about it here.

      For the calculation to work correctly, I'd advise you to enter 0:08 in a separate cell. This will let Google Sheets recognize the record (you'll see that the format in a cell will change to 00:08 while the formula bar will show 00:08:00). Then reference this cell in a formula from another cell: =A2*10
      Or use a formula like this: =TIME(0,8,0)*10

  40. Hi Natalia,

    First of all, thank you for the amazing article and responses in the comments!
    I'm evaluating the time it takes to do certain tasks, and I was able to build a table with the correct duration values. This table includes values over 24 hours of duration, for example, "25:04:00".

    In the table, everything works great, the conditional formatting for values over 24 hours works, and everything is perfect. However, I created a chart from this table, and the chart doesn't work as well.

    It's a combo chart with bars representing the duration over time, and lines to represent the objectives and targets. Taking the example above, instead of 25 hours, the bar represents only 1 hour. It resets at 24 hours.

    Even worse, another chart that is a copy of the first but feeds on different values, will reset values at 12 hours.

    I can't seem to find any setting to control this. Can you help me?

    1. Hi Tari,

      Appreciate your kind feedback :)

      For me to be able to help you with the chart, please share an editable copy of your spreadsheet with your table and the chart with us (support@apps4gs.com). If you have confidential information there, you can replace it with some irrelevant data, just keep the formats and durations intact.

      Note. We keep that Google account for file sharing only, please do not email there. Once you share the file, just confirm by replying to this comment. I'll look into it.

  41. I'm trying to tally up 2 different columns of times and determine the difference between them. Both sets of columns have an end time, subtracted by the start time to determine duration. I have the result of the formula formatted as "[h]:mm." Most of the time, the value is positive, more time was spent rather than what was estimated. However, there are some times when the actual hours worked were less than what was expected. I'm trying to keep a running tally of hours 'owed' as opposed to extra.

    I am working on an old computer with an old version of Excel. It doesn't have as many of the formatting possibilities as you have listed in your examples above. The formula works when it returns a positive time duration, but the negative time is expressed as "####" because it says that there is no 'negative' time? Is there a workaround for this? Do I need to convert the time value to "real" numbers, keep a running sum, then put them back into time format for a total number of hours minutes? Could I incorporate an if/then statement?

    I'm not as familiar with Goggle Sheets. I am going to be sharing this data with someone via Sheets and if there is a better/easier way to use it directly I can just avoid Excel altogether.

    Thanks for your "time!" ;)

    1. Hello Susan,

      The instructions in this blog post are for Google Sheets. For Excel, you will find them in this article. There Svetlana mentioned how to make Excel display negative time. Hope this helps!

      But if you're okay working with Google Sheets, there's only one version of Sheets and it shows negative time by default. Feel free to calculate everything in Google Sheets and let me know if it doesn't work as you expect there.

  42. Hello, I am trying to add up all the time in one column and have it represented as dd:hh:mm but I just can't seem to do it. Im wondering if you could help. I will give an example directly from the sheet. Also, they are all represented as hh:mm. So c1, 0:41 c2, 0:53 c3, 2:22 c4, 3:28 c5, 9:17 c6, 6:49 c7, 1:56 c8, 3:25 c9, 2:43 c10, 6:28. Like asked how would I add the whole column with said outcome? (So if I update it time will change) Also, could these be averaged but with an outcome of hh:mm so I could find average hours per day? (Each c1, c2 ect is a day). Thank you so much this would be very appreciated.

    1. Hello Jesse,

      I answered the same question just a few days ago, please have a look :) The same formula will work for you. If you have your SUM in C11 (showing 38:02 as a result), reference C11 in the formula from that comment of mine, and you'll get 1 day 14 hours 2 minutes.

      As for the average, it is usually calculated from a few values. I'm not sure how you want it to apply to each cell separately. Perhaps, you mean to round the values to full hours?

      1. Oh for the average just have it as it is hh:mm. I assume you naturally find the average then convert it with the formula you showed me. Hmmmm

        1. Wait nevermind I figured out how to do the average.

      2. OH MY GOODNESS. Thank you this is awesome. ;)

  43. Sorry if this is a silly question. I want my time differences displayed as a decimal of an hour (1.5 hours instead of 1:30:00) How can I do this? Thanks!

  44. Hi Natalia,

    Firstly, thank you for the work you have done here, it has helped me a lot. However, I am stuck at the final hurdle.

    I am calculating the total duration spent across a month and need to display the result in dd:hh:mm. I have the hh:mm for the month summed, so it's just this final part of the puzzle that has me stuck. Currently, I have a calculation that sums to 29:09 (so 29 hours and 9 minutes) which is correct and when I try to format that into dd:hh:mm it returns 31:05:09, however, it should be 01:05:09 (1 day, 5 hours and 9 minutes).

    Hope you can help.

    Thanks
    John

    1. Hi John,

      Thank you for your feedback!
      Please try the following formula instead (assuming your duration is in A2):
      =INT(A2)&":"&IF(Hour(A2)<10,"0"&Hour(A2),Hour(A2))&":"&IF(Minute(A2)<10,"0"&Minute(A2),MINUTE(A2))

      1. That's great! Thank you!

  45. In regards to google sheets and changing the format. I imported a spreadsheet which has call log times for my employees. I am trying to standardize and find out the daily time they spend on the phones helping patients so I can track who is pulling the heaviest call volume. My report that exports from my phone company only puts the format as 10mins or 56 secs, is there a way or formula to convert that into the standard 00:00:00 timing format so that I can add up their total time? I am not seeing a way to do this and it is looking like this may be a manual process. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    1. Hello Mark,

      There is a formula for your task :)

      You can check if your cells contain 'mins' or 'secs' and extract the numbers already converted to minutes or seconds accordingly. Here's a formula:
      =IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("mins",A2)),TIME(0,LEFT(A2,SEARCH("mins",A2)-1),0),IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("secs",A2)),TIME(0,0,LEFT(A2,SEARCH("secs",A2)-1)),""))

      Paste this formula where you want to see the result, change A2 to a cell you're checking, and make sure to change the number format of the resulting cells to Duration.

  46. Hy! I need to help to solve problem. When employee atrandece time is greater than office time than cell is colour red . How can it possible plz

  47. I may be missing something, but I cannot find the solution to how to avoid a negative calculation of time when they're on two different days. I'm trying to create a very simple time sheet, but if someone has a start time of 11pm and end time of 4am this shows a total of -19 hours. How do we fix this within the formula? Thanks.

    1. Hello Maria,

      Please look at Example 1 in this part of the blog post. There's a similar case in row 3 and the subtraction works. Also, make sure you format your result cell correctly.

      If you still can't get the required result, please tell me what you use as the start and end time exactly and specify your formula.

  48. Thank you very much for the guide!
    But I still experience an error that is testing my patient very hard...
    Basically when i put 13:00 in a cell (after applying the hh:mm format) google sheet doesn't recognize that as a number or time and it says that it is text...
    And no formulas works...
    Only way that i found is to imput the time using . instead of : but it's a bad workaround

    Anyone got this problem too?
    Thanks!

    1. Hi Manuel,

      The date and time format and separators usually depend on your spreadsheet locale, time zone, and display language. I described it in this blog post, please have a look.

  49. hello All, I have tried with formula, But giving the result as below, Please suggest what's wrong.
    Eg : 05/06/2020 18:22:51 - 04/06/2020 16:42:24 = 721.6741667
    Please suggest how to solve this
    Thanks
    Kantharaju

  50. I've two cells formatted as Date Time and i cannot do any calculation..
    why? :(

    1. Hello Mauro,

      For me to be able to help you, please specify the formula that doesn't work and describe what lies in the ranges your formula refers to.

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