NETWORKDAYS - Count days in a working calendar
Count eligible weekdays between two dates, including qualifying endpoints and excluding an explicit company holiday list.
By the end, you can
- Apply Saturday/Sunday weekend exclusions.
- Include eligible start and end dates.
- Use the organization's explicit holiday dates.
Before you start: Understand numeric Excel dates and calendar-day subtraction.
In this lesson
Available workdays are not the same as attendance
NETWORKDAYS counts whole working days in an interval using Saturday and Sunday as weekends and an optional holiday list. It can estimate available days in a project period or an attendance calendar. It does not know who actually attended or which personal leave days occurred; that requires separate records.
Syntax and arguments
=NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays])Eligible start and end dates are included. Use NETWORKDAYS.INTL when the weekend pattern differs.
| Argument | Purpose | Example |
|---|---|---|
start_dateRequired | Beginning of the interval. | B2 |
end_dateRequired | End of the interval. | C2 |
holidaysOptional | A range of valid dates excluded from the working calendar. | $D$2 |
Project workdays with one company closure
6| A | B | C | D | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Period | Start | End | Example holiday | Workdays |
| 2 | Sprint | 01-Oct-2026 | 09-Oct-2026 | 02-Oct-2026 | 6 |
| 3 | Single day | 05-Oct-2026 | 05-Oct-2026 | 1 | |
| 4 | Reverse interval | 09-Oct-2026 | 01-Oct-2026 | -6 |
=NETWORKDAYS(B2,C2,$D$2)1–9 October spans nine calendar dates. Seven are weekdays; the Friday holiday removes one, leaving six.
- Enter start, end, and holiday as numeric dates, such as with DATE.
- Count the eligible weekdays, including both endpoints if they qualify.
- Exclude 02-Oct, already part of the weekday count.
- Fix the holiday reference before filling down; check the single-day and reverse-date examples.
Compare inclusive workdays and calendar days
=NETWORKDAYS(B2,C2)The seven weekdays all count when no company closure is supplied.
=NETWORKDAYS(B3,C3,$D$2)05-Oct-2026 is Monday and not a listed holiday, so both endpoints describe one qualifying day.
=C2-B2+1The inclusive calendar count is nine, unlike the six eligible workdays.
Weekends, holidays, and compatibility
- Saturday and Sunday are excluded by this function's fixed weekend convention. NETWORKDAYS.INTL is the Excel variant for another weekend pattern.
- A holiday already on a weekend does not remove another working day. Keep the holiday list as actual date values.
- Reversed dates return a negative workday count; the displayed reverse interval returns −6.
- This is a whole-day calendar calculation, not a count of business hours. It is available in older/current Excel; invalid date inputs can produce #VALUE!.
Common mistakes and practical tips
NETWORKDAYS and its INTL variant are not available in this workspace, and there is no matching existing Practice challenge. These calendars teach Excel behavior.
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