How to report partial hours when certifying for EDD benefits - minutes vs decimals?
I started working part-time at a retail store while still collecting partial unemployment, and I'm super confused about how to report my hours correctly on EDD certification. My timesheet shows hours in hours:minutes format (like 4:30 for 4 hours and 30 minutes), but the EDD certification form asks for hours in decimals. For example, yesterday I worked 5 hours and 45 minutes (5:45). Would I put that as 5.45 or 5.75 on the EDD form? I've also worked shifts that were 3 hours and 20 minutes - how would I convert that? Don't want to mess up my certification and get hit with an overpayment later! Any help appreciated!
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Ava Martinez
You need to convert the minutes into a decimal. It's not 5.45 for 5 hours and 45 minutes - that would be incorrect. For EDD reporting, you need to divide the minutes by 60 to get the decimal equivalent. So for 5 hours and 45 minutes: 5 hours + (45/60) = 5 + 0.75 = 5.75 hours For 3 hours and 20 minutes: 3 hours + (20/60) = 3 + 0.33 = 3.33 hours The EDD system accepts two decimal places, so you would report 5.75 and 3.33 respectively. Always round to the nearest hundredth if needed.
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Miguel Ramos
•This is great advice! when i was on unemployment last year I was so confused about this too lol
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QuantumQuasar
what about if your employer rounds to the nearest quarter hour on your timesheet? do you have to convert that too or just use what's on your paystub?
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Ava Martinez
•Great question. If your employer rounds to the nearest quarter hour, you can use those rounded figures when reporting to EDD. Just make sure you're consistent and that what you report matches your paystub, since that's what EDD will check if there's an audit. Quarter hours convert to decimals like this: 15 min = 0.25 30 min = 0.50 45 min = 0.75
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Zainab Omar
I certify for benefits every 2 weeks & have always reported my hours in decimals. I just use a calculator to convert minutes to decimals by dividing by 60. For your examples: 45 mins ÷ 60 = 0.75, so 5 hrs 45 mins = 5.75 hrs. And 20 mins ÷ 60 = 0.33, so 3 hrs 20 mins = 3.33 hrs. This is super important to get right because EDD will check this against employer reporting. I always take screenshots of my calculations just in case I need to explain later.
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Dmitry Sokolov
•Thanks! Do you know if I need to round these numbers at all? Like should 3 hours and 20 minutes be 3.33 or 3.3 or just 3.3333... I don't want to get flagged for a few pennies difference!
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Connor Gallagher
When i had to report my hours to EDD i just rounded evrything to the nearest quarter hour. So 5:45 would be 5.75 and 3:20 would be 3.25. never had any problems. the key is to be consistent wiht how u do it every time.
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Dmitry Sokolov
•That makes sense, thanks! I'll try to be consistent each week.
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Yara Sayegh
I ran into this EXACT issue last month and it was driving me CRAZY!! The EDD system is so outdated and confusing. I ended up calling EDD because I was terrified of making a mistake and getting accused of fraud or something. Took me 3 DAYS of constant redialing to get through!!! If anyone else needs to talk to an actual EDD rep about this or other certification issues, I finally found a service called Claimyr that got me through to an EDD agent in less than 25 minutes! It's at claimyr.com and they have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/JmuwXR7HA10?si=TSwYbu_GOwYzt9km The agent confirmed what others said - convert minutes to decimals by dividing by 60. So glad I got that cleared up because I was reporting incorrectly before!
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Keisha Johnson
•Does that service actually work? I've been trying to reach EDD for weeks about my identity verification and keep getting the "we're experiencing high call volume" message every single time.
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Yara Sayegh
@user7 Yes! That's exactly the message I kept getting too. The service actually does work - it basically auto-dials for you until it gets through the queue. Saved me from having to manually redial 100+ times.
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Miguel Ramos
•i just tried calling today and got hung up on 6 times lol might have to try this
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Ava Martinez
To answer the follow-up question about rounding - EDD's system accepts two decimal places, so you should round to the nearest hundredth (two decimal places). For example: 3 hours 20 minutes = 3.33 hours (because 20/60 = 0.333... rounded to 0.33) If you're ever unsure, you can always slightly round up rather than down. It's better to report a tiny bit more than you worked than to underreport, as underreporting could lead to fraud allegations.
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Dmitry Sokolov
•This is super helpful, thank you! I'm going to use the calculator on my phone to convert everything properly from now on.
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QuantumQuasar
wait im confused still. so if i work 2 hours and 15 minutes is that 2.15 or 2.25?? and does it matter if i just put 2.2 or 2.3? will i get in trouble for this?
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Ava Martinez
•2 hours and 15 minutes would be 2.25 (because 15/60 = 0.25). It's not 2.15 - that's a common mistake. You should report 2.25, not 2.2 or 2.3, to be most accurate. While small rounding errors might not trigger an investigation, it's better to be precise especially if you're regularly certifying with partial hours.
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Connor Gallagher
FYI - I remember my orientation when I first filed for unemployment, they said just round to the nearest quarter hour to keep it simple (0.25, 0.5, 0.75, etc). That's what most employers do for payroll anyway.
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Dmitry Sokolov
Thank you all for the explanations! I think I've got it now - divide minutes by 60 to convert to decimals. I'll keep track of my exact hours and convert properly going forward. Seems like the consensus is to be as accurate as possible with two decimal places, but small differences from rounding to the nearest quarter hour are generally okay too as long as I'm consistent. Really appreciate all the help!
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