Excel working days between two dates is a crucial function for anyone who needs to calculate the number of business days between two specific dates. This function is particularly useful in various scenarios, such as project management, financial analysis, and time tracking. In this article, we will explore how to use Excel’s built-in functions to determine the working days between two dates efficiently.
The first step in calculating the working days between two dates in Excel is to identify the starting and ending dates. Once you have these values, you can use the NETWORKDAYS function to calculate the number of business days between them. The NETWORKDAYS function takes up to three arguments: the start date, the end date, and an optional array of holidays.
For example, let’s say you want to calculate the number of working days between January 1, 2022, and January 31, 2022, excluding weekends. To do this, you can enter the following formula in a cell:
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=NETWORKDAYS(“1/1/2022”, “1/31/2022”, {“1/17/2022”, “1/18/2022”})
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In this formula, “1/17/2022” and “1/18/2022” represent the weekends you want to exclude from the calculation. The result will be the number of working days between the two dates, excluding the specified weekends.
Another useful function for calculating working days between two dates is the NETWORKDAYS.INTL function. This function allows you to specify the weekends and holidays according to different regions. For instance, if you want to calculate working days in the United Kingdom, which has a Friday and Saturday weekend, you can use the following formula:
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=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(“1/1/2022”, “1/31/2022”, “1111110”)
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In this formula, “1111110” represents the weekend days in the UK, where “1” indicates Saturday and “0” indicates Sunday.
When dealing with holidays, you can create a list of holidays in a separate range and pass it as an argument to the NETWORKDAYS or NETWORKDAYS.INTL functions. This way, you can easily update the list of holidays without modifying the formula itself. For example:
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=NETWORKDAYS(“1/1/2022”, “1/31/2022”, {“1/17/2022”, “1/18/2022”, “1/26/2022”})
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In this case, “1/26/2022” is a holiday that you want to exclude from the calculation.
Excel’s working days functions are incredibly versatile and can be customized to fit various requirements. By using these functions, you can save time and effort when calculating the number of working days between two dates, making your work more efficient and accurate.