Business Days Calculator

What are business days?

A business day is a day on which offices are normally open. In most of the world that means Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays. It is the unit contracts, banks, couriers and courts count in - which is why "payment due within 30 business days" and "payment due within 30 days" are six weeks apart.

How are business days calculated?

Three steps, and this calculator shows all three so you can check the answer:

1. Count every calendar day in the range, including or excluding the first and last day as you choose.
2. Take out the weekends. What remains is the number of weekdays.
3. Take out public holidays that fall on a weekday. What remains is the business days.

A holiday landing on a Saturday or Sunday is not subtracted again - it has already been removed as a weekend. Getting that wrong is the most common error in a hand calculation, and it undercounts.

Business days vs calendar days

Calendar days are simply every day on the calendar. Business days skip weekends and holidays. Over a month the difference is substantial: 30 calendar days is usually about 21 business days, so a deadline expressed in business days falls roughly nine days later than the same number of calendar days.

Business days vs weekdays

Weekdays are Monday to Friday, full stop. Business days are weekdays minus public holidays. In a week containing Christmas Day, there are five weekdays but four business days. The two are used interchangeably in casual speech and they are not the same, which matters when the difference is a deadline.

How holidays affect the count

Only holidays falling on a working day change the answer. Which holidays apply depends on the country, and sometimes the region - Germany's Länder, Switzerland's cantons and Spain's autonomous communities all observe days the rest of the country does not. This calculator uses national holidays and says so on screen; anything local can be added by hand in the custom holidays box.

Two national rules are worth knowing because they move the day offices actually close. In the United States, a federal holiday on a Saturday is observed the Friday before and one on a Sunday the Monday after. In the United Kingdom a bank holiday at a weekend moves forward to the next free weekday - so when Christmas Day and Boxing Day both fall at a weekend, the substitute days run into the following week.

How to calculate business days manually

For a rough figure: divide the calendar days by seven, multiply by five, then subtract any holidays. Thirty days is about 21 weekdays. That works because every whole week contributes exactly five, but it goes wrong on the part-week at each end - which is where an exact count is worth doing.

Frequently asked questions

How many business days are between two dates?

Enter both dates above and the answer appears immediately, along with the weekday and holiday counts it came from.

Does a business day include Saturday?

Not normally. If your business does trade on Saturdays, tick "Saturday is a working day" and the count changes accordingly. Some industries and some countries work a Sunday-to-Thursday week, which the same options cover.

Does a business day include Sunday?

No, in almost all cases. The option is there for the exceptions.

Are public holidays excluded?

Yes, when they fall on a weekday. Choose the country whose holidays apply, or select "None" to count weekends only.

What is the difference between business days and working days?

In everyday use, nothing. "Business days" is the more common phrase in American contracts and shipping; "working days" is more common in the UK and Europe. Both mean weekdays that are not public holidays. Our working days calculator is the same tool under the name you may be searching for.

How many business days are in a year?

A normal year has 260 or 261 weekdays. After removing public holidays that fall on weekdays, most countries land between 249 and 253. The exact figure changes every year, because holidays move relative to the weekend - which is also why a fixed number is not much use for planning.

Related date tools

Use days between dates for the full calendar breakdown, the date calculator to add or subtract a number of days, the week number calculator for ISO weeks, and the meeting time planner when the two dates are in different countries.