A payroll manager receives a timesheet indicating 7 hours and 45 minutes of work. They enter it as is into their spreadsheet, multiply by the hourly rate, and the gross amount is incorrect. The problem does not stem from a typing error, but from a format incompatible with decimal calculation. Time in hundredths eliminates this discrepancy by expressing each duration on a base of 100 instead of 60.
This format makes the value directly usable by any calculation tool.
Rounding Rule in Hundredths and Legal Risk on the Payslip
Competitors detail the conversion formula (minutes divided by 60), but they overlook a point that regularly causes issues in practice: the rounding convention. When dividing 7 minutes by 60, you get 0.1166… The question then becomes whether to round to 0.12 or truncate to 0.11.
This choice seems trivial for a single day. Spread over an entire month, then multiplied by the number of employees, the discrepancy becomes visible on the payslips. Recent guides on hour calculations remind that payroll must apply a stable and identical rounding rule each month, otherwise differences accumulate and become disputable.
It is recommended to document this convention (rounding up, down, or to the nearest) in an internal note or in the payroll software settings. This is not just an administrative formality: it is a protection in case of disputes over back pay for overtime. A detailed article on time in hundredths on Blog Entreprises discusses the professional uses of this decimal format.
Conversion Hours to Hundredths: What Gets Stuck in Time Tracking Software
Most time clocks and time tracking applications record hours in hour-minute format (08:32, 17:15). Payroll software, on the other hand, expects a decimal number. A conversion must take place between the two, and this is where errors creep in.
The Trap of Excel hh:mm Format
In Excel, a cell displaying 7:45 does not contain the number 7.75. It stores a fraction of a day (0.322916…). If you multiply it directly by an hourly rate without prior conversion, the result is absurd. You must first multiply the value by 24 to obtain a decimal number of hours, then apply the rate.
The formula that works: cell value × 24 = hours in hundredths. On a monthly timesheet, forgetting this step on just one line is enough to distort the total.
Configuration of HR Software
Recent HRIS generally offer a choice of format for export (sexagesimal or decimal). It is noted that the default setting is not always the hundredths format. Before launching the first payroll after a software change, it is better to check this setting on a test case rather than correcting dozens of payslips afterward.
- Check the output format (hh:mm or decimal) in the export settings of the time tracking software.
- Manually compare one or two lines between the raw timesheet and the payroll import file.
- Document the chosen settings so that any change of provider or version does not reintroduce a different format.
DSN 2026 and Work Quota: Why Conversion to Hundredths Has Become a Compliance Issue
Since the summer of 2026, the guidelines for ensuring the reliability of work quotas in the DSN require payroll services to systematically reconcile the contractual duration, declared hours, and time tracking data. This cross-checking reveals inconsistencies related to poorly configured hour-minute to hundredths conversions.
Specifically, if an employee has a 35-hour contract and the DSN reports 34.92 hours some weeks due to a faulty rounding, the discrepancy triggers an alert during the quota check. The payroll department must then justify the difference or correct it.
This reinforcement changes the game for companies that managed the conversion “roughly.” SMEs still using manual Excel files are the most exposed, as rounding is not always applied uniformly from month to month.
Overtime in Hundredths: The Calculation That Avoids Disputes
The counting of overtime is the area where conversion to hundredths most clearly shows its usefulness. In sexagesimal format, adding 7 hours 45 minutes + 8 hours 20 minutes + 7 hours 50 minutes requires managing the 60-minute deductions. In hundredths, you add 7.75 + 8.33 + 7.83, which equals 23.91 hours. Subtracting the weekly threshold (35 hours) directly gives the additional volume.
The decimal format makes the calculation of surcharges clear for the employee on their payslip. An employee who sees 2.50 hours of overtime at 25% can verify the amount with a single multiplication. With a format of 2 hours 30 minutes, the verification assumes they know how to convert themselves, which generates questions to the HR department.
- Add the daily durations already converted to hundredths to obtain the weekly total.
- Subtract the legal or contractual duration to isolate the additional volume.
- Apply the surcharge rate directly to the decimal result, without intermediate reconversion.
Preservation of Evidence in Hours-Minutes
A point often overlooked: switching to the hundredths format in payroll tools does not exempt from keeping a detailed record in hours and minutes. In case of an audit or dispute, it is the precise hourly record that prevails, not the decimal rounding. Therefore, both formats are kept, the hundredth for calculation and the sexagesimal for proof.
The hundredths format does not replace the rigor of hourly tracking. It complements it by making each payroll operation verifiable in seconds, from raw time tracking to net pay.
