How are minutes converted to decimals in timeSensor LEGAL?
Time recording systems, including timeSensor LEGAL, store times as numerical values in decimal format. The time conversion from the notation HH:MM to the decimal notation and back leads to rounding problems. timeSensor LEGAL gives you different ways of dealing with this problem. This FAQ entry should help you to decide on a variant. The selected variant can then be set accordingly for each entity.
Variant I: Exact time recording
With this variant, timeSensor LEGAL always calculates to five decimal places - 10 minutes equals 0.16667 hours.
A calculation to five decimal places is necessary so that the cumulative rounding error remains negligible even with many time performances. If the calculation were set to only two decimal places, for example, the result would contain a noticeable rounding error when adding many rounded times, which would be noticeable when calculating back to the HH:MM notation. However, the time performances in decimal notation are only shown with two decimal places. In the timesheet, when you enter h10, you see 0.16 in the decimal column - but the field actually contains 0.1667. On the invoice printout, the numbers are only shown with two decimal places. However, internal calculations are always made with five decimal places. You can see this in the timesheet by clicking on the No. click. The actual value then appears:
Advantage of this variant: Time performance is converted and recalculated with the greatest possible accuracy.
Disadvantage of this variant: Requires discipline when collecting data. If you choose this option, you should always have timeSensor LEGAL convert the minutes. So use abbreviation+number of minutes in the timesheet (e.g. h10, h70, etc.). Experience shows that this discipline is not guaranteed for law firms of a certain size. There will be users who enter their own values in the number field (0.16 or 0.17) and this can potentially lead to small rounding errors when summing up over longer periods of time.
Variant II: Time recording with timetables
When using timetables, each number of minutes is converted into a precisely defined, two-digit value. Various tables are circulating. The industry minute table and the UDR table are implemented in timeSensor LEGAL.
Disadvantage of this variant: Minor rounding inaccuracies can still occur over longer periods of time, although these often compensate each other in total.
Variant III: Rounding to 6 minutes each
With this variant, the times are rounded to the nearest 6 minutes, which then results in increments of 0.1 hours expressed in decimals. This completely eliminates cumulative rounding errors.Related Articles
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