so here is the issue. this IF statement returns the following error:

if [ $(( $actmin - $loginmin )) -lt 0 ]; then
ttimehr=$(( ($acthr - $loginhr) - 1 ))
ttimemin=$(( ( $actmin + 60 ) - $loginmin ))


./timeOn1: line 45: 49 - 47
1
39 : syntax error in expression (error token is "1
39 ")

im not sure why it changed but several times it would tell me that the subtraction symbol was not valid either.
I'm mostly confused here because if I run the preceding variables and that IF statement in the parent shell it works fine with no errors but it will NOT work within the subshell.

Perhaps the subshell is not bash. Try calling the subshell with the bash command:

please use code tags for code and terminal output.
like this:
since you post only part of your script we do not know if the error message refers to the bit you posted.
but anyhow.
your code is very convoluted, too many brackets.
try this:
are all the variables initialized with numerical values?
would it be possible to post the whole script instead, or a working example that can reproduce the problem?
is this bash?
have you tried ???

As with ondoho's post, you need to learn more about how bash does arithmetic.
And the first part of that is to remove all square brackets:
As indicated though, without knowing what all these variables are set to, this may still error

newline character in variable?