How to calculate the difference between two times in Excel?
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How to calculate the difference between two times in Excel?

Excel allows you to carry out calculations using date and time data.

The commercial benefit to this feature is that you can set up spreadsheets to calculate dates and times that effect formulas and functions automatically. for example you could use this feature to manage your bad debt based on the date fomulas =today() or =now() and have you payments linked to these function using a formula.

When using time in a cell it is best practice to format the cell first using a Time Format, and then entering the time you want e.g. 08:30. Let's say you want to subtract one time value from another, first enter a value into a cell, say A1 and the second value into cell B1. Select cell C1 and enter the following formula:

=B1-A1 If A1 has 10:30 and B1 has 14:00 this formula would calculate the difference between the two times and give the result as 3:30

Please be aware that Excel does not give negative time results. These will be shown as ################ and to get around this you must use the options to change the calculations to use the 1904 date system.

Related forum posts:

Excel - time calculations

Hi there, I am trying to replicate a timesheet that we used in a previous role where the formula could calculate hours due/owed by the employee. I have managed to get the formula to work as long as the employee does their hours or over time but it will not show a negative result in the event that an employee does not do enough for that day. At present the calculation is relatively simple with a cell which adds up the finish time minus the start time and time taken for lunch (hours actual

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