If someone comes in at 12PM and leaves at 8PM, then (8PM - 12PM) * 24 = 8.

In excel terms: assume A1 = 12 PM, B1 = 8PM. Then: (B1-A1)*24 = 8. Make
sure the cells are formatted for time, not integers, for this calculation.

As to the issue of taking time for lunch: include a helper column, "lunch
taken?" which you populate with Y or N as appropriate. Assume column E is
the helper column.

Then: IF(E="N",(B1-A1)*24,(b1-A1-[TIMETAKEN])*24)

"Frantic Excel-er" wrote:

Hello Everyone -

I have four columns a,b,c,d...column A = time in, column B = time out for
lunch, column C = time back in from lunch, and column D = time out for the
day.

A B C D E
8:00 12:00 12:30 5:00 =?

How do I calculate the total time spent at work? I am sure this is very
simple, but I can't figure it out. The result needs to be displayed in a
number format - like for this item, this would be 8.5 hours. Also, one other
wrench might be that someone doesn't take a lunch for the day because they
may only work for 5 hours, so they would put time in (column a) and time out
(column D) with no data in between.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!

thanks!!!