Rounding Time

There may be instances when you need to round a time value. For instance, you may need to round some time to the nearest quarter-hour. One way to do this is to use the MROUND worksheet function, which is part of the Analysis ToolPak provided with Excel.

For example, let's assume the unrounded time was in cell B7. You could then use the following formula to perform the rounding:

=MROUND(B7, TIME(0,15,0))

This formula relies, as well, on the use of the TIME worksheet function, which returns a time value (in this case, for 15 minutes).

If you don't want to use the MROUND function (perhaps you don't want to use the Analysis ToolPak), there is another way you can round to the nearest 15 minutes. The clue is to remember that 15 minutes is 1/96th of a day. So to round to the nearest 15 minutes, take the time value, multiply it by 96, round it, and then divide it by 96.

For example, if the time value you wish to round is in cell E5, the following formula does the rounding very nicely:

=ROUND(E5*96,0)/96

Notice that this formula uses the ROUND worksheet function, which is intrinsic to Excel and doesn't require an add-in.