How to sum time and format as hours, minutes or seconds in Excel?

In general, after summing up time, the result is formatted as time like this hh:mm:ss. But in some cases, you may want to sum up time then format the result as decimal hours, minutes or seconds. This tutorial is talking about the methods to solve this job in Excel.

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Sum time and format as hours/minutes/seconds

Sum time and format as decimal hours/minuts/seconds

In Excel, you can sum up time first, and then format the result as you need.

1. Select a blank cell, and type =SUM(A2:B2) into it, and then press Enter key and drag the auto fill handle over the cells you need to apply this formula. See screenshot:

2. Then keep the formula cells selected, and right click to select Format Cells from the context menu. See screenshot:

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3. In the Format Cells dialog, select Custom in the Category list under Number tab, and if you want to format the result as hours, type [hh] into the textbox below Type section. See screenshot:

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4. Click OK. And all the cells are format as hours. See screenshot:

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Tip:

If you want to format cells as minutes or seconds format, just type [mm] or [ss] into the textbox below Type section in the Format Cells dialog.

Format as [mm]

Format as [ss]

But with above method, you cannot get accurate result when the result is formatted as hours or minute only. However, with Kutools for Excel’s Convert Time utility, you can convert the result to accurate decimal hours or minutes or seconds.

Kutools for Excel, with more than 300 handy functions, makes your jobs more easier.
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After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:（Free Download Kutools for Excel Now!)

1. Select a blank cell, and type =SUM(A2:B2) into it, and then press Enter key and drag the auto fill handle over the cells you need to apply this formula. See screenshot:

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2. Keep selecting the formula cells, and click Kutools > Content > Convert Time, and choose the option as you need. See screenshot:

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Then a dialog pops out to remind you the total number of converted cells, just click OK to close it.

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And then you can see the results are formatted as decimal hours, minutes or seconds.

Convert time to hours

Counvert time to minutes

Convert time to seconds

With Kutools for Excel’s Convert Time, you also can save the converted time to another location by clicking Kutools > Content > Convert Time to show the Convert Time dialog, and check Save to another location (Convert range is one area) option and select a cell to output the results, then click Ok, and the converted results are placed in the selected cells.

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