Add Business Days to a Date

All versionsWORKDAY

“10 working days from today” isn’t just today + 10. WORKDAY skips weekends (and holidays) to land on the right business date for SLAs, ship dates, and deadlines.

Quick formula: add 10 working days to the date in A2:

=WORKDAY(A2, 10, holidays)

WORKDAY counts forward by working days only; the optional holidays range is skipped too. Use a negative number to go backward.

Functions used (tap for the full reference guide):

WORKDAY

The example

10 business days after a Monday.

	A	B
1	Start	+10 workdays
2	Mon 6/1/2026	Mon 6/15/2026

The formula

Land N working days out:

=WORKDAY(A2, 10) // skips Sat/Sun (and holidays)

How it works

WORKDAY counts only working days:

WORKDAY(start, days) moves forward days working days, skipping every Saturday and Sunday.
Pass a holidays range as the 3rd argument to skip those dates too.
A negative day count counts backward — e.g. “5 working days before the deadline.”
The start date itself isn’t counted; counting begins the next working day.

Custom weekends use WORKDAY.INTL(start, days, weekendCode, holidays) — e.g. code 7 for a Friday/Saturday weekend. To count the working days between two dates instead of adding them, use NETWORKDAYS.

Try it: interactive demo

Live demo

Add business days to a date.

Start

Days

Result:

Variations

Backward

Before a deadline:

=WORKDAY(A2, -5)

Custom weekend

Fri/Sat weekend:

=WORKDAY.INTL(A2, 10, 7)

Skip holidays

Add a holiday list:

=WORKDAY(A2, 10, D2:D5)

Pitfalls & errors

Start isn’t counted. WORKDAY begins counting the next working day, so +1 from a Friday is the following Monday.

Format as a date. The result is a serial number — apply a date format if it shows as digits.

Plain WORKDAY = Sat/Sun weekend. For other weekends use WORKDAY.INTL.

Practice workbook

📊

Download the free Add Business Days to a Date practice workbook

A WORKDAY calculator with backward, custom-weekend, and holiday variants, plus 4 challenges with answers. No sign-up required.

Frequently asked questions

How do I add business days to a date in Excel?

Use =WORKDAY(start, days, holidays). It moves forward by working days, skipping weekends and any holidays. Use a negative day count to go backward.

How do I use a non-standard weekend?

Use WORKDAY.INTL with a weekend code: =WORKDAY.INTL(start, days, 7) treats Friday and Saturday as the weekend.

Does WORKDAY count the start date?

No — counting begins the next working day, so adding 1 to a Friday returns the following Monday.

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Function references: WORKDAY