How To Add Time In Google Sheets

How To Add Time In Google Sheets

If you have worked with time and date in Google Sheets, then we are sure you know how to add the date in Google Sheets. It is definitely easy to date to an already existing date in Google Sheets, but what about adding time to the Google Sheets? How do you add time in Google Sheets?

In this article, we will show you how you can add time in Google Sheets in hours, minutes, or seconds. The benefit of adding dates and times to the Google Sheets are enormous. For those who have to deal with Google Spreadsheets often, adding the right current time is crucial to managing efficiency. The promising tool certainly makes Google Spreadsheets a robust and reliable option.

In order to add time to Google Sheets, you don’t have to use any kind of complex formulas or functions. Below is a detailed step-by-step guide that you can follow for adding time in Google Sheets. You can learn these safe and efficient steps to add time in Google Sheets in the most hassle-free way. 

Let us now begin with the basics and find out how to add time in Google Sheets, whether it is hours, minutes, or even seconds. 

If you have worked on Google Sheets date, you would have to know how easy the task is. You can simply enter the Number of days you want to add to the current date, and it will show the results. It is an easy task when we use Google Sheets to do these kinds of tasks. 

However, adding time in Google Sheets might be a little different than adding simple dates in the Sheets. In this post, we are going to see how to add time to Google sheets. 

Adding Time In Google Sheets

There are a few things you should know before entering the tutorial steps. Adding time in Google Sheets is not exactly like adding days in Google Sheets. If you want to get the five days of the current date, you can simply enter five, which will give you the current date after five days. 

But if you want to add time to the current time, you can’t simply enter the Number of hours you would like to add. For example, let us assume the time is 8 am in the Google Sheets, and you want to add five hours to it, which will give us a result of 1 pm. 

You can’t simply add five to the current time and expect the 1 pm result. If you enter five, it will add five days to the current time, which is not what we want. So, we should follow a different method to enter the time you want to add. 

If you enter 1, it will add 24 hours to the current time. If you enter 0.5, it will add 12 hours to the current time. So, if you have to add five hours, you have to enter 0.208. If you enter 0.208 to the time of 8 am, the result will be 1 pm. 

How do we calculate the right value to enter? The answer is simple. We should divide the Number of hours we like to add by 24. If you want to add five hours to the current time, divide five by 24, which will result in 0.208. The same formula goes for any time. 

Now let us get into the steps to make Google Sheets add time as we enter the values. 

1. First, click on the cells you wish to make as the time counter. Don’t use the cells that already have something written on it. We need fresh cells for our task. 

2. Then, go to the Format option on the menu bar. You can find it in the top mid-right portion of the screen. It will be in the menu bar along with other menus. 

3. After that, press the Numbers menu on the top of the dropdown list. It will open another dropdown list. 

4. Go to the bottom of the dropdown list that appears after clicking Number. You can find a menu called Custom Number Formats. Click on it, which will produce another dropdown list. 

5. Click on the Custom Number Format. You can either choose from the existing formats or create your own, depending upon your needs. After that, click Apply to save and continue. 

This method is efficient because other methods out there might not show you the addition of hours if it exceeds 24 hours. Using this method, you can add hours that are less than or exceed 24 hours.  

Adding Minutes To Time In Google Sheets

Using this method, you can add even minutes without requiring to divide it by 24 hours. You just have to enter values in two different columns and place a formula that adds both the cell’s data and produces it in another new cell. 

1. Use a column to enter the start or current time. Then in the second column, enter the minutes you want to add to the current time. 

2. Go to the fx and paste =A2+B2/(24*60). This is the formula that will add and convert the dates and times without you needing to do any calculations. 

This method is time saving and efficient method and can be used to add even minutes to the current time.