How to Count Business Days Between Two Dates (Excluding Holidays)

Counting business days sounds easy. Then a public holiday lands on a Wednesday and your project plan slips a day.

Here's the method that actually works, the trap most people fall into, and the spreadsheet formulas that get it right the first time.

What counts as a business day?

A business day is any weekday (Monday to Friday) that isn't a public holiday for the region you care about. The weekday part is easy. Agreeing on the holiday list is where it gets messy.

Sales, payroll, and shipping all use slightly different ones. Pick yours up front.

The manual method, step by step

• Count total calendar days between the two dates. Decide if the end date is included, and stick to it.
• Subtract the Saturdays and Sundays in the range.
• Subtract any public holidays that fall on a weekday.
• Don't subtract holidays that already fall on a weekend. You'd be double-counting.

That last point is the trap. Christmas on a Saturday is already excluded by the weekend rule. Subtracting it again quietly adds a phantom day to your delay.

Excel and Google Sheets

Both have NETWORKDAYS(start, end, [holidays]) built in. If your weekend isn't Saturday and Sunday, use NETWORKDAYS.INTL instead. Pass a range of holiday dates as the third argument and you're done.

The fastest way

Or skip the formulas. Our Business Days Calculator handles weekends, custom holidays, and the weekend-overlap trap automatically. If you only need a plain calendar-day count, the Date Difference Calculator is faster.