MS Excel: WORKDAY function calculate working days

The WORKDAY function in Excel helps you calculate a future or past date by excluding weekends and (optionally) holidays. It's essential for project planning, due date tracking, and workforce scheduling, where counting only business days is crucial.

For example, if a task starts on May 1 and takes 10 working days to complete, WORKDAY can instantly return the expected completion date, skipping Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.

Syntax

=WORKDAY(start_date, days, [holidays])

Arguments:

Argument	Required	Description
start_date	✅ Yes	The starting date (can be a date value or cell reference).
days	✅ Yes	The number of working days to add (positive) or subtract (negative).
holidays	❌ No	A range or array of dates to exclude as holidays (optional).

How It Works

• By default, WORKDAY excludes weekends (Saturday and Sunday).

• You can also exclude public holidays by providing them in the holidays argument.

• Returns a serial number representing the target date (format as Date).

Examples

Example 1: Add 10 Working Days to a Start Date

=WORKDAY(DATE(2025,5,1), 10)

Result: 2025-05-15(Skips weekends; adds 10 business days)

Example 2: Subtract 5 Working Days from a Date

=WORKDAY("2025-05-15", -5)

Result: 2025-05-08

Example 3: Exclude Holidays

Assume cell range C2:C3 contains two holiday dates: 2025-05-09 and 2025-05-12.

=WORKDAY(DATE(2025,5,1), 10, C2:C3)

Result: 2025-05-19(Skips weekends and holidays)

Sample Table

Start Date	Days	Holidays (if any)	Formula	Result
01/05/2025	10	—	=WORKDAY(A2, B2)	15/05/2025
01/05/2025	10	09/05, 12/05	=WORKDAY(A3, B3, C2:C3)	19/05/2025
15/05/2025	-5	—	=WORKDAY(A4, B4)	08/05/2025

Notes

• If days = 0, the result is the same as start_date if it's a weekday; otherwise, it returns the next working day.

• To use a custom weekend definition (e.g., Friday & Saturday off), use WORKDAY.INTL.

• Use TEXT() to format the returned serial number into a readable date format if needed.

Related Functions

Function	Description
WORKDAY.INTL()	Customizes which days are weekends
NETWORKDAYS()	Calculates total working days between two dates
TODAY()	Returns the current date
EDATE()	Shifts dates by calendar months

Summary Table

Feature	Details
Function Name	WORKDAY
Purpose	Add/subtract working days from a date
Skips	Weekends (Sat/Sun) & optional holidays
Return Type	Date (serial number formatted as date)
Introduced In	Excel 2007+

Conclusion

The WORKDAY function is a must-have for professionals working with deadlines, SLAs, and schedules. It simplifies complex date calculations by automatically ignoring weekends and holidays, making your time-based analysis more accurate and efficient.