Course / Dates, Rounding & Money

Working days and due dates

Find the day of the week, count business days between dates while skipping holidays, and schedule deadlines with WORKDAY. Intermediate · 4 min · WEEKDAY, NETWORKDAYS, WORKDAY, Holiday lists

Plain date subtraction counts every day, weekends included. When you plan real work, you usually want working days: Monday to Friday, minus any holidays.

• WEEKDAY tells you which day of the week a date falls on
• NETWORKDAYS counts the working days between two dates
• WORKDAY finds the date a number of working days away

The sheet tracks a design studio's projects. The days the studio is closed are listed in H2:H7.

Steps

1. Which day of the week does each project start? In D2:D7, use =WEEKDAY(B2, 2). The 2 makes Monday 1 and Sunday 7.

2. How many working days does each project have? In E2:E7, count the weekdays from start to deadline with NETWORKDAYS.

3. Those counts include days the studio is closed. Edit E2 to pass the holiday list H2:H7 as a third argument, lock it with $ signs, then fill down to E7 again.

4. The first draft is due 10 working days after each project starts. In F2:F7, use WORKDAY with the same holiday list to find the due dates.

Remember

• WEEKDAY(date, 2) numbers the days Monday = 1 to Sunday = 7.
• NETWORKDAYS(start, end, holidays) counts working days, including both ends.
• WORKDAY(start, days, holidays) finds a date that many working days away.
• Keep holidays in one list and lock it with $.

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