How to Calculate Business Days in Google Sheets

Google Sheets has the same four business-day functions as Excel, with the same names and the same argument order: NETWORKDAYS counts the working days between two dates, WORKDAY finds the date a number of working days after a start date, and NETWORKDAYS.INTL and WORKDAY.INTL let you choose the weekend. Everything below follows Google's own help pages for each function, linked under the guide, and every example result was recomputed with this site's engine.

Counting business days: NETWORKDAYS

=NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays])

Google describes the result as "the number of net working days between two provided days", treating Saturday and Sunday as the weekend. Its help page does not say whether the start and end dates themselves are counted. You can check it in your own sheet: April 2026 has 22 weekdays from the 1st to the 30th, so =NETWORKDAYS(DATE(2026,4,1), DATE(2026,4,30)) returns 22 if both ends count. Excel documents the same function as counting both ends; the Excel guide shows Microsoft's example.

Example: with an invoice date in A2 and today's date in B2, this counts the business days in between:

=NETWORKDAYS(A2, B2)

To take holidays out, add the range that holds them as the third argument:

=NETWORKDAYS(A2, B2, $E$2:$E$12)

To leave the start date out, add one day to it: =NETWORKDAYS(A2+1, B2, $E$2:$E$12).

Calculating a due date: WORKDAY

=WORKDAY(start_date, num_days, [holidays])

WORKDAY returns the date num_days working days after the start date, or before it if the number is negative. Google notes that a fractional number of days is truncated: WORKDAY(A2,1.9) is the same as WORKDAY(A2,1).

Example: with April 1, 2026 in A2 and US federal holidays in column E:

=WORKDAY(A2, 30, $E$2:$E$12)

The result is May 13, 2026, the 30th business day after April 1; no federal holiday falls in between. That is 30 business days, not the "Net 30" of an invoice read as calendar days, which is simply =A2+30; the Net 30 guide explains the two readings.

If the cell shows a number instead of a date, format it: Google's steps are to select the cells, click Format > Number and pick the format to apply.

Dates the functions will read

Google warns that these functions do not convert typed dates the way a cell does: NETWORKDAYS(10/10/2000,10/10/2001) is read as the quotients of 10 divided by 10 divided by 2000 and 2001, not as two dates. Write dates with DATE(year, month, day) or point at cells that hold real dates.

The holidays argument is a range or an array constant. Values in a range should be dates or date serial numbers; values in an array must be date serial numbers or dates returned by DATE, DATEVALUE or TO_DATE.

Setting up a holiday list

Put the holiday dates in one column, one per row. For the US federal holidays in 2026 the list starts with January 1, January 19 and February 16; the US federal holidays 2026 guide has the full list.

To keep the list on its own sheet, refer to it with the sheet name and an exclamation mark, as Google's help shows (=Sheet1!A1); put a sheet name that contains spaces in single quotes:

=NETWORKDAYS(A2, B2, Holidays!$A$2:$A$12)

Other weekends: NETWORKDAYS.INTL and WORKDAY.INTL

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(start_date, end_date, [weekend], [holidays])
=WORKDAY.INTL(start_date, num_days, [weekend], [holidays])

Google gives two ways to write the weekend. As a number: 1 (the default) is Saturday and Sunday, 2 is Sunday and Monday, and so on to 7 for Friday and Saturday; 11 is Sunday only, through 17 for Saturday only. As a string of seven 0s and 1s, starting with Monday, where 1 marks a weekend day: "0000011" is Saturday and Sunday, and "0000110" is Friday and Saturday.

For a Friday-Saturday weekend:

=NETWORKDAYS.INTL(A2, B2, "0000110", $E$2:$E$12)

WORKDAY.INTL takes the same weekend argument for due dates. The guide to the working week around the world covers which countries rest on which days.

Shared sheets

Two Sheets features keep a shared holiday list intact. Name the range: select the cells and click Data > Named ranges, then type a name such as USHolidays2026, and the formula becomes =NETWORKDAYS(A2, B2, USHolidays2026). Protect it: click Data > Protect sheets and ranges, then Add a sheet or range, choose Range, and use Set permissions to choose how editing is limited.

Function names in other languages

Sheets can show function names in the language of your Google Account. Google's steps: with a non-English account language, click File > Settings and, under "Display language", uncheck "Always use English function names". The German and Spanish editions of this guide list the names Google's help uses in those languages. For calendars of 25 countries without a holiday list to maintain, the Business Day Calculator is quicker for single dates.

FAQ

Are the business day formulas in Google Sheets the same as Excel?

The four functions (NETWORKDAYS, NETWORKDAYS.INTL, WORKDAY and WORKDAY.INTL) have the same names and argument order in Google's and Microsoft's documentation, including the weekend numbers and the seven-character weekend string. One difference to watch: Google's help warns that typed dates such as 10/10/2000 inside the function are read as division, so use DATE().

Does NETWORKDAYS in Google Sheets count the start date?

Google's help page does not say. Check it with a known month: =NETWORKDAYS(DATE(2026,4,1), DATE(2026,4,30)) returns 22 if both ends are counted, because April 2026 has 22 weekdays from the 1st to the 30th. To exclude the start date, use =NETWORKDAYS(A1+1, B1).

Can I use NETWORKDAYS across multiple sheets?

Yes. Refer to the holiday list on another sheet with the sheet name and an exclamation mark, for example =NETWORKDAYS(A2, B2, Holidays!$A$2:$A$12); put a sheet name that contains spaces in single quotes.