Excel formula: Get work hours between dates by using NETWORKDAYS

How to Get Work Hours Between Dates in Excel

Read time: 34 minutes

We may need to calculate work hours between two dates when workers are paid for working hours between dates. We can achieve this by calculating work days between two dates excluding the weekends and holidays between two dates and then multiplying it with a specified number of working hours in a workday

Figure 1. Calculating Work Hours Between Dates

Work Hours – Excluding Default Weekends and Holidays

To calculate work hours between dates excluding default weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and holidays we need to use a formula based on the Excel NETWORKDAYS function as per the following generic syntax;

=NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays]) * daily_working_hours

The Excel NETWORKDAYS function returns net workdays between two dates and we will multiply the net workdays by the number of working hours in a workday to get the result. Suppose we have the start date in cell B2 and end date in cell C2 and holidays in range B7: B9, and the number of working hours per day are 8. We need to use the following formula in cell D2;

=NETWORKDAYS(B2, C2,$B$7:$B$9)*8

Figure 2. Work Hours Between Dates – Excluding Default Weekends and Holidays

Work Hours – Excluding Custom Weekends Only

If we want to calculate the work hours between two dates excluding only custom weekends, say Sunday, without taking holidays into account, then we need to use the Excel NETWORKDAYS.INTL function as per following formula syntax;

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(start_date, end_date, [weekend]) * daily_working_hours

The Excel NETWORKDAYS.INTL function returns the number of workdays between two dates with custom weekend parameters. As we want to exclude custom weekend Sunday only, by ignoring the holidays, so we need to use the following formula in cell D3;

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(B3,C3,11)*8

Figure 3. Work Hours Between Dates – Excluding Custom Weekends Only

Work Hours – Excluding Custom Weekends and Holidays

We will use the following formula syntax to get the work hours between two dates excluding the custom weekends and holidays;

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(start_date, end_date, [weekend], [holidays]) * daily_working_hours

In our example, we use the following formula in cell D4 to calculate the work hours excluding Sundays (custom weekend) and holidays;

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(B4,C4,11,$B$7:$B$9)*8

Figure 4. Work Hours Between Dates – Excluding Custom Weekends and Holidays

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