Note: If you have limited experience with Excel try the Excel WORKDAY.INTL Function Step by Step Tutorial which includes detailed information about using this function.
This tutorial is intended for users familiar with using Excel's date functions.
Excel 2010 WORKDAY.INTL Function Text-only Tutorial
The WORKDAY.INTL function, new in Excel 2010, can be used to find the start or end date of a project given a set number of work days.
Days specified as weekend days are skipped by the function. In addition, specific days, such as statutory holidays, can be omitted as well.
Unlike the WORKDAY function, WORKDAY.INTL allows you to specify which days and how many are considered weekend days rather than automatically assuming two days per week - Saturday and Sunday - as weekend days.
The WORKDAY.INTL Function's Syntax and Arguments
The syntax for the WORKDAY.INTL function is:
= WORKDAY.INTL ( Start_date , Days, Weekend, Holidays )
Start_date - (required) the start date of the chosen time period. Enter the actual date for this argument or the cell reference to the location of this data.
Days - (required) the length of the project. Enter an integer indicating the number of work days or the cell reference to the location of this data.
Note: To find a date that occurs before the Start_date argument use a negative integer for the Days argument.
Weekend - (optional) the number of days and which days of the week considered to be weekend days. Enter the weekend number code or the cell reference to the location of this data (see the table of number codes on page 2 of this tutorial).
If this argument is omitted, Saturday and Sunday will be used as weekend days.
Holidays - (optional) one or more additional dates that are not counted in the total number of working days. Use the cell references to the location of the data for this argument.
Example: Find the End Date of a Project
See the image above for help with this example.
Example details:
- Project start date - August 5, 2012
- length of project - 82 days
- weekend days - Friday and Saturday so the number seven ( 7 ) will be entered for the Weekend argument
- 2 additional holiday dates - August 19 and November 15 will be entered for the Holidays argument
Note: To avoid calculation problems that can occur if dates are accidentally entered as text the DATE function will be used to enter the dates used in the function. See the Error Values section at the end of this tutorial for more information.
Entering the Data
- Enter the following data into the appropriate cell:
D1: Start Date: D2: Number of Days: D3: Weekend: D4: Holiday 1: D5: Holiday 2: D6: End Date: E1: =DATE(2012,8,5) E2: =DATE(2012,11,29) E3: 7 E4: =DATE(2012,8,19) E5: =DATE(2012,11,15)
Entering the WORKDAY.INTL Function
- Click on cell E6 to make it the active cell - this is where the results of the WORKDAY.INTL function will be displayed
- Click on the Formulas tab
- Choose Date and Time functions > WORKDAY.INTL from the ribbon to bring up the function's dialog box
- Click on the Start_date line in the dialog box
- Click on cell E1 in the worksheet to enter this cell reference into the dialog box
- Click on the Days line in the dialog box
- Click on cell E2 in the worksheet to enter this cell reference into the dialog box
- Click on the Weekend line in the dialog box
- Click on cell E3 in the worksheet to enter this cell reference into the dialog box
- Click on the Holidays line in the dialog box
- Drag select cells E4 and E5 in the worksheet to enter these cell references into the dialog box
- Click OK in the dialog box to complete the function
- The date 11/29/2012 - the end date for the project - should appear in cell E6 of the worksheet
- When you click on cell E6 the complete function =WORKDAY.INTL ( E1, E2, E3, E4:E5 ) appears in the formula bar above the worksheet
WORKDAY.INTL Function Error Values
If the data for the various arguments of this function are not entered correctly the following error values in the cell where the WORKDAY function is located:
- #VALUE! : appears in the answer cell If one of WORKDAY's arguments is not a valid date (if the date was entered as text for example)
- #NUM!: appears in the answer cell if an invalid date results from adding the Start_date and Days arguments
- If the Days argument is not entered as an integer - such as 83.25 days - the number will be truncated to the integer portion of the number: 83 days
