The h is for hours and the mm is for minutes. The square brackets tell Excel to exceed 24 hours. In the Type field, type left square bracket, h, right square bracket, colon, and then, mm. To format the cell, right-click it, and click Format Cells. In this example, the total is greater than 24 hours.Įxcel can display time in many different ways, such as hours and minutes, or hours, minutes, and seconds a.m., p.m., or a 24-hour clock or a number that is greater than 24 hours, as is needed in this example. I know the formula is correct, so it must be how cell D4 is configured to display time. To start a formula, you always use an = sign, click cell D2, type the + sign, click cell D3, and press Enter.ġ2 hours and 45 minutes plus 15 hours and 30 minutes, isn’t 4 hours and 15 minutes. You could use AutoSum again to add these column’s tasks, or a formula to add these two cells. This is what I want, so I click it again, and get the total time for the tasks. I click it once to see what it is going to add.

The best way to do this is to use the AutoSum button on the HOME tab.

You can add time in Excel just like you add other types of numbers.įor example, you might do this if you want to know how long it took to complete a project’s tasks.