High‐time resolution (64 ms) hard X‐ray (HXR) data fromBATSE/CGROallow us to study the energy‐dependent timing of acceleration, propagation, energy loss, and trapping of ≳20 keV HXR‐emitting electrons during solar flares. In many flares two different HXR flux components can be distinguished: (1) the fine structure of a HXR time profile (containing sequences of subsecond pulses) exhibits delays of ≊10–100 ms for the low‐energy electrons, while (2) the unmodulated HXR time profile (a smooth lower envelope to the fine structure) shows a delay of opposite sign and much larger magnitude, of typically 1–10 s. We model the timing of various acceleration mechanisms and find that the delay of the HXR pulses is dominated by time‐of‐flight differences rather than by acceleration time scales, while the timing of the unmodulated HXR flux is governed by trapping and collisional time scales. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.