Timesheet Rounding Calculator NZ

Quick answer: Rounding is applied to each time entry, so the extra time grows with the number of entries. Eight entries a week totalling 418 minutes, each rounded up to the next six minutes, bill 438 minutes: 20 minutes more, which is $40.00 a week or $1,840 a year at $120 an hour over 46 weeks.

This timesheet rounding calculator shows what happens to your billing when every time entry is rounded to an increment before it goes on an invoice. Contractors, consultants and other professionals who bill clients by the hour often record their day as short entries: a phone call, a quick fix, an email thread, a longer block of drafting. Rounding one of those to the next six minutes looks trivial on a single line, but the rounding is applied to every entry, every week, and the small additions build into real money over a year. You paste in a week's entries in minutes, separated by commas, spaces or new lines, choose the increment and whether entries round up, down or to the nearest, and enter your hourly rate and the number of weeks you bill in a year. The calculator rounds each entry on its own, totals the hours logged and the hours billed, and shows the extra billed each week and each year. Rounding down gives a negative figure, which is time you are giving away. The increment and the direction of rounding are commercial terms agreed between you and your client, so the figures here are for checking what your own terms do. This page is about billing clients, not about recording employees' hours for pay.

jobtracker.co.nz Timesheets for NZ workers and contractors: paid for every hour you work. Your own record of every shift and what it adds up to, with rates, invoices and GST for contractors. Logging your hours is free on every plan. Start free.

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Your Timesheets at jobtracker.co.nz logs your hours on a week grid or a timer that keeps counting when your phone locks, free on every plan. Career and Timesheets turns those hours into projects and rates, fixed fees and retainers, numbered invoices with GST only when you are registered, expenses and mileage, and the tax to set aside, from $4.99 a month billed yearly.

Log your hours free
$
$1,840
extra billed per year
Logged a week6.97 hours
Billed a week7.30 hours
Extra billed a week$40.00
Extra hours a year15.33 hours

How it works

Each entry is divided by the increment. Rounding up takes the next whole number of increments, rounding down takes the last whole one, and rounding to the nearest takes whichever is closer, with an exact half rounding up. The rounded entries are added together and compared with the minutes you logged. That difference, converted to hours and multiplied by your rate, is the extra billed in a week, and multiplying by the weeks you bill gives the year. A one-minute increment leaves every whole-minute entry unchanged, so it shows your bill with no rounding at all. Because the rounding happens entry by entry, many short entries add more than a few long ones: with the default entries, rounding the week's 418 minutes as a single total up to six minutes would add 2 minutes rather than 20.

Worked example

The default week has eight entries totalling 418 minutes, which is 6.97 hours. Rounded up to the next six minutes each, they become 438 minutes, or 7.30 hours, so 20 minutes is added. At $120 an hour that is $40.00 a week, and over 46 billing weeks it comes to 15.33 hours and $1,840 a year.

Entry loggedRounded up to 6 minutesAdded
47 minutes48 minutes1 minute
12 minutes12 minutes0 minutes
95 minutes96 minutes1 minute
33 minutes36 minutes3 minutes
8 minutes12 minutes4 minutes
61 minutes66 minutes5 minutes
22 minutes24 minutes2 minutes
140 minutes144 minutes4 minutes
418 minutes438 minutes20 minutes

The same eight entries rounded up to a larger increment, at $120 an hour over 46 weeks:

IncrementMinutes billed a weekExtra billed a year
1 minute418$0
6 minutes438$1,840
10 minutes460$3,864
15 minutes495$7,084
30 minutes570$13,984

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Frequently asked questions

What is a six-minute unit?

Six minutes is one tenth of an hour, so time recorded in six-minute units converts straight to decimal hours: 18 minutes is 0.3 hours and 48 minutes is 0.8 hours.

Who decides how billed time is rounded?

You and your client. The increment and whether entries round up, down or to the nearest are commercial terms of your engagement, and writing them into your terms lets the client see how each entry will be billed. This calculator is about billing clients, not about recording employees' hours for pay.

Why does rounding each entry add more than rounding the total?

Because part of an increment is added to every entry, so more entries means more added. The default week of eight entries totals 418 minutes. Rounding each entry up to six minutes adds 20 minutes, while rounding the 418 minutes as one total up to six minutes adds only 2.

Does rounding to the nearest increment even out?

Not necessarily. Each entry moves up or down by up to half an increment, so the result depends on where your entries fall. On the default entries, rounding to the nearest six minutes adds 2 minutes a week, which is $184 a year at $120 an hour over 46 weeks.