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Totaling Time Values


Excel uses serial values to recognize time. The time's serial number is between 0 and 1 (noon serial time = 0.50).

The time format to display hours, minutes and seconds is HH:MM:SS. For example, a time of 14 hours and 56 minutes is displayed as 14:56:00.

Problem:
The default time format does not allow a time value to exceed 24 hours. For example, by entering a time of 28:56:00, the result is 04:56:00.

Solution:
Change the format of the cell by placing brackets around the hour, [HH]:MM:SS. The result is displayed as 28:56:00.

In the screenshot below, cell C5 uses the SUM function in a formatted cell to sum times correctly.