WORKDAY Function in Excel: A Date N Working Days Away

📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓

Date & TimeLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article

1. Syntax
2. Examples
3. Example 1
4. Example 2
5. WORKDAY in practice
6. Where you will use it
7. Worked example
8. Mistakes people make
9. Related functions
10. Continue learning

WORKDAY returns the date that is a number of working days before or after a start date, skipping weekends and holidays.

Syntax

=WORKDAY(start_date, days, [holidays])

Argument	What it means
days	Working days to add (negative to go back).
holidays	Range of holiday dates.

Examples

Example 1

=WORKDAY(A2, 5, Holidays)

Delivery date 5 working days after the order.

Example 2

=WORKDAY.INTL(A2, 5, 11, Holidays)

Same with a Sunday-only weekend.

WORKDAY in practice

Where you will use it

• Delivery date after N working days
• Due dates excluding weekends
• Project plans

Worked example

Start	Days	Formula	Result
02-Oct-2026	3	=TEXT(WORKDAY(A2,B2),"ddd dd-mmm")	Wed 07-Oct
05-Oct-2026	10	=TEXT(WORKDAY(A3,B3),"ddd dd-mmm")	Mon 19-Oct
24-Dec-2026	5	=TEXT(WORKDAY(A4,B4),"ddd dd-mmm")	Thu 31-Dec

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

Mistake	What to do instead
Holidays	Add the holiday list as the third argument
Different weekends	WORKDAY.INTL

Related functions

NETWORKDAYS · EDATE

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📎 Practice files for this article

• 📗
  Practice workbook: Dates & times22 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
  ⬇ XLSX · 34 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.