# Quick Excel question (add 7 minutes to a time) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971 "2003-06-06T00:37:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971/1 "2003-06-06T00:37:35Z")
I have a time in a cell formatted in the 12 hour time format (‘1:32:00PM’) How would I add 7 minutes to it in excel? I tried a normal sum (A1 + 7) but that alters the date? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mike\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_H)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971/2 "2003-06-06T00:45:48Z")
This formula should work: =A1+TIME(0,7,0) ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971/3 "2003-06-06T00:47:36Z")
Brilliant! Thanks **Mike H**! For speed and accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mike\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_H)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971/4 "2003-06-06T00:52:34Z")
Your welcome. Just for refrence, TIME() returns a time portion of a date value. Its parameters are TIME(hours,minutes,seconds). Just curious, why do you need to add 7 minutes to a date? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971/5 "2003-06-06T01:12:40Z")
I am creating a help sheet for times that things happen on our servers, the servers’ clocks are 7 minutes slow, so the data I am getting is 7 minutes ‘wrong’ So as not to look unprofessional I am obtaining the correct time. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971/6 "2003-06-06T02:10:07Z")
Whoever is administering your servers isn’t nearly obsessive enough! When I was doing that job, I used to reset them to Naval Observatory Time at least once a week! ---
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971/7 "2003-06-06T05:54:49Z")
Days are whole numbers; times are the decimal portion… For day X, X.0 is midnight, X.5 is noon, X.75 is six p.m. Day 1 is 1/1/1900. 1/1/2003 is day 37622. To add seven minutes to a timedate, add (7/1440), since there are 1440 minutes in a day. To add one second to a timedate, add (1/86400). You can put a “time correction” cell on your spreadsheet, in seconds, and reference that value dividing it by 86400 before adjusting your timedate. If you want to be silly, make a dedicated “time correction spreadsheet” somewhere company-public on your server and make all your spreadsheets reference the correction cell 😃 Or, don’t do that - the CEO will probably be on a plane with his laptop wondering why your spreadsheets complain about not being able to get something off the server. -AmbushBug [sub]Whose first real employment involved using Excel 1.00 on a Mac Plus equipped with only two floppy drives. Circa 1986.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971/8 "2003-06-06T20:03:09Z")
IIRC, =A1+“00:07:00” should also work. In MS Works you have to code =A1+VALUE(“00:07:00”) ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-excel-question-add-7-minutes-to-a-time/179971/9 "2003-06-06T21:25:06Z")
Also, [time] plus 0.004861111 should work.