Are public holidays excluded?

No. This counts weekdays only, so Saturdays and Sundays are skipped but bank holidays are not, since holiday calendars differ by country and industry.

How do I add business days to a date?

Switch the calculator to Date a number of working days away, enter the starting date and the number of working days, and choose forward or backward.

Business Days Calculator

Q: Is the start date counted as a working day?

No. The count starts from the day after the start date. If you need the start date included, add one to the result when it falls on a weekday.

Count working days between two dates, or find the date a number of working days away.

What counts as a working day

A working day here is any Monday to Friday. Weekends are skipped. Public holidays are not, because there is no single holiday calendar that would be right for everyone: a bank holiday in England is a normal working day in Scotland, and both differ from the United States federal list.

If holidays matter for your deadline, count them from the result. For a five working day window that crosses a single bank holiday, the real answer is six calendar weekdays out.

Why the start date is not counted

The count begins the day after the start date. This matches how delivery windows, payment terms and legal notice periods are normally written: "within 5 business days" means five working days follow the triggering day, not including it.

Payment terms are the most common place this trips people up. An invoice issued on a Friday with net 5 business days is due the following Friday, not the Thursday.

Working days in a typical year

A non-leap year starting on a Monday has 261 working days. Most years land on 260 or 261 depending on which weekday 1 January falls on, before any public holidays are removed. Subtracting a typical eight to twelve public holidays gives the 248 to 253 range that most annual leave and payroll calculations assume.

Adding or subtracting business days from a date

The calculator above also works in the other direction: pick a date, choose how many working days to add or subtract, and it returns the date you land on. Weekends are skipped the same way as when counting between two dates, so adding 5 working days to a Wednesday lands on the following Wednesday, not five calendar days later.

This is the form most delivery, payment and legal-notice deadlines are actually phrased in: "ships within 3 business days," "due 10 business days from invoice," "must respond within 5 working days." Switch the calculator to "Date a number of working days away" and enter the starting date and the count to get the exact landing date, forward or backward.

Common questions

No. This counts weekdays only, so Saturdays and Sundays are skipped but bank holidays are not. Holiday calendars differ by country and by industry, so a single built-in list would be wrong for most users. Subtract the holidays that apply to you from the result.

No. The count measures working days between the two dates, so it starts from the day after the start date. If you need the start date included, add one to the result when it falls on a weekday.

It normally means five weekdays after the day the clock starts, not counting the starting day itself. A payment initiated on a Monday with a five business day window arrives the following Monday, assuming no holidays fall in between.

Not directly. The calculator assumes a Monday to Friday week, which covers most of Europe, the Americas and much of Asia. If your working week runs Sunday to Thursday, the day count will be the same across a full week but the specific dates skipped will differ.

Switch the calculator to "Date a number of working days away," enter the starting date, the number of working days, and whether to count forward or backward. Weekends are skipped automatically, so the result always lands on a weekday.

It depends what day today is, since weekends are skipped. Enter today's date with 10 working days forward to get the exact date; it will typically be 12 to 14 calendar days out, depending on how many weekends fall in between.

Business days calculator: quick tips for accurate results

Use this business days calculator to plan project timelines, set realistic delivery dates, and calculate payment terms. Enter your start and end dates, and the business days calculator instantly excludes Saturdays and Sundays. For contract deadlines, run the business days calculator twice — once with the signing date and once with the effective date — to avoid off-by-one errors. Remember that this business days calculator assumes a Monday-to-Friday week, so adjust manually if your region observes a different weekend.

The concept of a business day varies by country and industry. The Wikipedia article on business days explains how different regions define working days and public holidays. When you use this business days calculator for international deadlines, confirm the local weekend — many Middle Eastern countries observe Friday-Saturday, not Saturday-Sunday. This free business days calculator is ideal for HR, logistics, and finance teams who need fast, accurate working-day counts. Bookmark the business days calculator for quick deadline checks throughout the year.

Continue with

All tools

Date Difference Days, weeks, months and years between two dates. Days Until How many days remain until a date. Work Hours Hours worked between two times, minus breaks. Days From Today Add or subtract days, weeks, months or years. Weeks Between Dates Exact weeks and leftover days between two dates.