Military time chart for time cards

Every hour in 24 hour time next to its AM/PM equivalent, and how to total a shift written in military time.

Last reviewed September 23, 2026 by Time Card Calculator Tool

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Many time clocks, especially in hospitals, warehouses and factories, print punches in 24 hour time. It removes AM/PM mistakes, which is why it is used, but it is easy to misread if you are used to a twelve hour clock. The chart below covers every hour; minutes stay the same in both systems.

The 24 hour chart

Converting between the two

• From military to standard: for 1300 and later, subtract 12 and add PM (1730 becomes 5:30 PM). 1200 to 1259 is PM with no change. 0000 to 0059 is 12 something AM.
• From standard to military: for PM times from 1:00 onward, add 12 to the hour (5:30 PM becomes 1730). For 12 something AM, write 00 (12:15 AM becomes 0015).
• Military time is written without a colon and is spoken as "seventeen thirty", but most time clocks print a colon anyway (17:30). Both mean the same.

Calculating hours between military times

This is where 24 hour time earns its keep. Because the hours run straight from 00 to 23, you can subtract the start from the end directly:

1. Write both times as hours and minutes: 0745 is 7 h 45 min, 1615 is 16 h 15 min.
2. Subtract minutes first. If the end minutes are smaller, borrow 60 minutes from the end hour: 16 h 15 min becomes 15 h 75 min.
3. Subtract: 15 h 75 min − 7 h 45 min = 8 h 30 min.
4. Take away an unpaid lunch if there was one, and convert minutes to decimal for payroll (8 h 30 min = 8.5).

Do not subtract military times as plain numbers. 1615 − 0745 = 870, which looks like 8 h 70 min but is actually 8 h 30 min, because an hour has 60 minutes, not 100. That shortcut is one of the most common payroll arithmetic slips.

Night shifts

For a shift that crosses midnight, add 24 hours to the end time. 2200 to 0630 becomes 22 h 00 min to 30 h 30 min, which is 8 h 30 min. The hours worked calculator and the time card calculator both handle this automatically; their time fields accept either format depending on your device settings.

Is 2400 a valid time?

2400 is sometimes used to mean the end of a day, and 0000 the start of the next. They are the same instant. On a time card, write 0000 for a midnight punch and record it on the day the shift started, so the shift stays on one line.