📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓
“Deliver in 7 working days”, “payment due in 15 business days”, “how many working days in October?” — calendar arithmetic ignores weekends and holidays, which is why simple =A2+7 gives the wrong due date. Excel’s WORKDAY and NETWORKDAYS families handle this.
In this article
Set up a holiday list once
Put holidays in a column on a Lists sheet and name the range Holidays (Formulas › Define Name). Every formula below can then skip them. Update the list each year from your company’s holiday calendar.
Due date N working days after a date
=WORKDAY(A2, 7, Holidays) ' Mon–Fri week
=WORKDAY.INTL(A2, 7, 11, Holidays) ' Sunday-only weekend (6-day week)The weekend code 11 means “Sunday off”. Others: 1 Sat–Sun (default), 7 Fri–Sat, 17 Saturday only. Or use a 7-character mask starting Monday, where 1 = day off: "0000011" is Saturday and Sunday off, "0000001" Sunday only.
Working days between two dates
=NETWORKDAYS(A2, M2, Holidays) ' counts both start and end days
=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(A2, M2, 11, Holidays) ' 6-day weekWorking days in a month
=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(DATE(2026,10,1), EOMONTH(DATE(2026,10,1),0), 11, Holidays)With a list of month starts in a column, this fills down into a working-days calendar for attendance or capacity planning.
Is a date a working day?
=WORKDAY.INTL(A2-1, 1, 11, Holidays) = A2Go back a day and move forward one working day — if you land on the same date, it’s a working day.
SLA: hours aren’t days
For “resolve within 2 working days from ticket time”, use WORKDAY for the date and keep the time separate: =WORKDAY(INT(A2), 2, Holidays) + MOD(A2, 1).
Where people go wrong
| Mistake | Result |
|---|---|
=A2+7 for “7 working days” |
Lands on weekends and holidays |
| Holiday list as text dates | Holidays silently not skipped — they must be real dates |
| NETWORKDAYS when you meant a gap | It counts both ends; subtract 1 for “days between” |
| Wrong weekend code | 6-day offices need code 11, not the default |
Practice
Download the combo practice workbook below: a Sales sheet of 200 orders plus tasks for the formulas on this page, each with an automatic ✓ check and an Answers sheet.
More: all formula combos · Excel function course.
📎 Practice files for this article
- 📗Formula combinations practice workbook50 tasks: lookups, running totals, ranks, top-N, unique counts, FY, age, text extraction, list comparison, weighted averages, ageing, rolling totals, duplicates and working days — with automatic checks.⬇ XLSX · 39 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.
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