How do you use Excel as a minutes-to-hours converter?
- A combination of the QUOTIENT and MOD function
With these 2 functions, you can extract the hours and the extra minutes in 2 different cells.
- Use the TIME function.
The TIME function will do the same job as a single function, and the result will be in time format automatically.
Expressing time in minutes rather than hours
Expressing time in minutes rather than hours can be useful in some situations:
- Workout or Exercise Plans: Fitness routines often use minutes for precise durations, like "90 minutes" instead of "1.5 hours" to align with standard notations.
- Children’s Activities: Instructors might use minutes to highlight shorter activities, such as "90 minutes" for a class or activity rather than "1.5 hours."
- Sports: Sports games are often described in minutes to align with common usage, such as "90 minutes" for a football game
- Entertainment Industry: Movies and TV shows often specify their lengths in minutes, like "105 minutes" instead of "1 hour and 45 minutes."
- Travel Estimates: When estimating travel times, people sometimes use minutes for durations just over an hour, like "75 minutes" for a commute.
Those examples are easy to convert in hours
- 90 mins => 1H30
- 120 mins => 2H
But in some situations, like technical and engineering contexts, minutes are often used for precision, such as
- The estimated life battery is 330 minutes
- The process has run for 523 minutes
- The machine has stopped after 236 minutes
Converting minutes to hours is not easy. This is why you can use Excel as a minutes-to-hours converter.
#1: QUOTIENT and MOD Functions
The first method extracts the hours and the remaining minutes in 2 different cells.
The QUOTIENT function
QUOTIENT returns the integer portion of a division. To convert minutes to hours, we must divide each duration by 60, because there are 60 minutes per hour. The formula is the following:
The MOD function
The MOD function returns the remainder once a number has been divided by a divisor. Here again, we use the value 60. The formula is:
- Machine A has run for 14 hours and 40 minutes.
- Machine B, 8 hours 37 minutes.
#2: Convert Minutes to Hours with the TIME function
The TIME function in Excel isn't the most popular Excel function, but it works perfectly in this situation. The TIME function has 3 arguments: the hours, the minutes, and the seconds. Here, we only need to fill in the minute's argument.
The result is automatically in Time format but with the AM/PM code. But you can change the display by changing the Time Format in the Custom Number Format options.
You can now calculate the ending time by adding the Starting time to the duration expressed in hours and minutes.
