=NOW() causes different results than manually coded time in duration calculation

[excelmayday]

I want to track the number of hours tasks take in order to show both the time an ongoing task has take so far as well as how long a completed task took. I hoped to use the current date and time functions,=TODAY() & =NOW(), in the Completed Day and Time" cells for tasks that have not completed yet to track number of hours so far and then manually enter date and time in these cells when the task completed.

However, though the =TODAY() function words fine, as explained below I can't figure out how to get the =NOW() function to provide the same results as when I enter the Completion Time manually .

Lines A & B are identical except that the End Time in A is entered manually while the End Time in B uses the current time function, =NOW().

The Hours Duration cells are identical, except for cell references, to subtract End Date + End Time from Current Date + Current Time and then multiply by 24: =((F45+G45)-(D45+E45))*24

The formats of the Hours Duration cell are identical (number with 2 decimal places).

I want the Hours Duration value to like like Line A's but so far have not figured out a way to do it using =NOW(). Can anyone help?

 

[Fluff]

Hi & welcome to MrExcel.
The reason you get that number is that NOW includes the date, try

=(G45-(D45+E45))*24