In this post you will learn how to calculate the number of workdays between two dates in Excel.
Calculating the number of workdays between two dates –
Oftentimes when reporting on the elapsed number of days between a start date and end
date, it’s not appropriate to count the weekends in the final number of days. Operations are
typically shut down on the weekends, so you would want to avoid counting those days.
You can use Excel’s NETWORKDAYS function to calculate the number of days between a start
date and end date excluding weekends.
As you can see in Figure below, the NETWORKDAYS function is used in cell E4 to calculate the
number of workdays between 1/1/2019 and 12/31/2019.
This formula is fairly straightforward. The NETWORKDAYS function has two required argu-
ments: a start date and an end date. If your start date is in cell B4 and your end date is
in cell C4, this formula would return the number of workdays (excluding Saturdays and
Sundays):
=NETWORKDAYS(B4,C4)Using NETWORKDAYS.INTL –
The one drawback to using the NETWORKDAYS function is that it defaults to excluding
Saturday and Sunday. But what if you work in a region where the weekends are actually
Fridays and Saturdays? Or worse yet, what if your weekends only include Sundays?
Excel has you covered with the NETWORKDAYS.INTL function. In addition to the required
start and end dates, this function has an optional third argument—a weekend code. The
weekend code allows you to specify which days to exclude as a weekend day.
As you enter the NETWORKDAYS.INTL function, Excel displays a menu as soon as you go
into the third argument (see Figure below). Simply select the appropriate weekend code and
press Enter.
