Excel WORKDAY Function

We can use the WORKDAY function to know if a day is a workday or not. This function calculates defined “workdays” dates in the future or past. It automatically excludes weekend dates and (optionally), holidays. The steps below will walk through the process.

Figure 1: How to Use Excel WORKDAY Function

Syntax

=WORKDAY(start_date, days, [holidays])

• Start_date: The specified date to start from
• Days: These are working days before or after start_date.
• Holidays: [optional] A list of dates that should be considered non-work days.

Formula

=WORKDAY(A4,B4,$A$10:$A$11)

Setting up the Data

• We will set up data by inputting our Dates in Column A
• Column B contains the days we want after the start date and before the start date. A negative value as in Cell B6 signifies that we want a day before the start date
• Our result will be returned by the WORKDAY function in Column C
• Holiday dates are in Cell A10 and Cell A11

Figure 2: Setting up the Data

Note:

All dates in Column A have been formatted from month/date/year (e.g. 21/1/2019) to what is in figure 2. We can do this by selecting the range (A4:A11) where we will put the dates.

• We will right-click and click on format cells
• We will select the custom option and input ddd, mmm/d/yyyy in the “type” section

Figure 3: Formatting the Cells

• We will press OK

Workday Function

• We will click on Cell C4
• We will insert the formula below into the cell
  =WORKDAY(A4,B4,$A$10:$A$11)
• We will press the enter key

Figure 4: Result of Date is a Workday for Cell C4

• We will click on Cell C4 again
• We will double click on the fill handle tool which is the small plus sign you see at the bottom right of Cell C4. Select and drag down to copy the formula to other cells.

Figure 5: Result of Using the WORKDAY Function

Explanation

=WORKDAY(A4,B4,$A$10:$A$11)

This formula returns as WORKDAYS in the past or future.

In Cell C4, the formula sees that the start date is a Friday. Because we have specified the days in the future as 1 in Cell B4, the next day ought to be Saturday. However, this function automatically skips weekends and the next WORKDAY is therefore, MONDAY.

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