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The Excel WORKDAY Function

Related Functions:
NETWORKDAYS
WORKDAY.INTL

Function Description

The Excel Workday function returns a date that is a supplied number of working days (excluding weekends and holidays) ahead of a given start date.

The syntax of the function is:

WORKDAY( start_date, days, [holidays] )

where the arguments are as follows:

start_date - The initial date, from which to count the number of workdays.
days - The number of workdays to add onto start_date.
[holidays] - An optional argument, which specifies an array of dates (in addition to weekends) that are not to be counted as working days.

Note that Microsoft recommends that the start_date and [holidays] arguments should be input as either:

or

If you attempt to input Excel date arguments as text, there is a risk that Excel may misinterpret them, depending on the date system or date interpretation settings on your computer.


Workday Function Examples

In the spreadsheets below, the Excel Workday function is used to find a date that is 25 work days after Dec 01, 2015. The first example (in cell A7) only excludes weekends from the calculation, while the second example (in cell A8) excludes weekends and a supplied list of holidays.

 Formulas:
  A B C
1 Start Date: 12/01/2015  
2 Holidays: 12/25/2015  
3   12/28/2015  
4   01/01/2016  
5      
6 Date Falling 25 work days after Dec 1st, 2015:
7 =WORKDAY( B1, 25 ) - No Holidays
8 =WORKDAY( B1, 25, B2:B4 ) - Excludes holidays in cells B2-B4
 Results:
  A B C
6 Date Falling 25 work days after Dec 1st, 2015:
7 01/05/2016   - No Holidays
8 01/08/2016   - Excludes holidays in cells B2-B4

Note that, in the above spreadsheets:

Note also that, as recommended by Microsoft, in the calls to the Workday function, the start_date and [holidays] arguments have been supplied as cell references.


See the Microsoft Office website for further examples of the Excel Workday function.


Workday Function Errors

If you get an error from the Excel Workday function this is likely to be one of the following:

Common Errors
#NUM! - Occurs if the supplied start_date plus the supplied days argument results in an invalid date.
#VALUE! -

Occurs if either:

  • The supplied start_date or any of the values in the supplied [holidays] array are not valid dates;
  • The supplied days argument is non-numeric.
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