Do you use a timesheet? A variety of consultants and professionals bill not just by the hour, but by the half hour, the quarter hour and the tenth of an hour. Some professionals use an electronic system to track their time, while others use pen and paper. Whatever method you use to track your time, it is easy to figure your timesheet in tenths of an hour.

Calculate an hour's time in six-minute increments. Six minutes is one-tenth of an hour, so 12 minutes is two-tenths, 18 minutes is three-tenths, 24 minutes is four-tenths, and so on. Type or print this information in an easy-to-read, two-column chart on a reference card. Your chart should look something like this:

0.1 = 6 minutes 0.2 = 12 minutes 0.3 = 18 minutes 0.4 = 24 minutes 0.5 = 30 minutes 0.6 = 36 minutes 0.7 = 42 minutes 0.8 = 48 minutes 0.9 = 54 minutes

Refer to the chart when you figure your timesheet entries. Use whole numbers for hours and tenths of hours for minutes. For example, if you spent four-and-one-half hours on a task, enter 4.5 on your timesheet. If you spent 24 minutes on a task, enter 0.4 on your timesheet.

Ask your project manager, your supervisor or your client if there is a policy about rounding time up or down to the nearest one-tenth of an hour. If a time-rounding policy exists, follow the policy. If there is no policy, round down when a task took one or two minutes more than a tenth of an hour, and round up where a task took three, four or five minutes more than a tenth of an hour. For example, if you spent 35 minutes on a task, round up and enter 0.6, or 36 minutes, on your timesheet. If you spent 25 minutes on a task, round down and enter 0.4, or 24 minutes, on your timesheet.