Date & Time2026-03-182 related articles

NETWORKDAYS Function in Excel

Return the number of working days between two dates.

Syntax

NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays])

Arguments

start_date

Required

A date that represents the start date.

end_date

Required

A date that represents the end date.

holidays

Optional

An optional range of one or more dates to exclude from the working calendar, such as state and federal holidays and floating holidays. The list can be either a range of cells that contains the dates or an array constant of the serial numbers that represent the dates.

What it returns

Returns the count of working days between the start and end date.

What NETWORKDAYS does

NETWORKDAYS counts business days between two dates. It excludes Saturdays and Sundays by default and can also ignore a custom holiday list.

Practical examples

Count business days between two dates

=NETWORKDAYS(A2,B2)

This is useful for turnaround time, staffing calculations, or lead-time tracking.

Exclude a list of holidays

=NETWORKDAYS(A2,B2,F2:F10)

The range F2:F10 can hold company shutdown dates or public holidays.

Common mistakes and notes

NETWORKDAYS includes both boundary dates when applicable

That behavior can make the total seem off by one if you expected only the full days in between.

Weekend rules are fixed unless you use NETWORKDAYS.INTL

If your workweek is not Monday through Friday, use NETWORKDAYS.INTL so the weekend definition matches reality.

Holiday entries must be valid dates

If the holiday list contains text or inconsistent date formats, those days may not be excluded correctly.

Related functions

WORKDAY DATE DATEDIF

Deep dives, troubleshooting guides, and practical examples that use NETWORKDAYS.

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