Tip of the week # 437
14 December 2014


Find out how many working days are left in 2014 (Microsoft Excel)

Is this your last working week of the year or do you carry on until the bitter end? Whatever date you want to count down to (a holiday, anniversary, birthday, wedding, retirement, completion of house ... or Christmas) you can use Excel's NETWORKDAYS function to calculate the number of whole working days between two dates. It will exclude weekends and any dates you identify as holidays.

Here's how:

  1. Enter today's date in, say, cell A2 by typing =TODAY()
  2. Select cell B2 and enter the date of the event (say, 31/12/14)
  3. Select the cell in which the countdown result is to appear (say, C2) and type =NET.
  4. Press TAB to autocomplete the NETWORKDAYS formula. (It even opens a bracket for you!)
  5. Click on the start date (e.g. cell A2)
  6. Type a comma.
  7. Click on the end date (e.g. cell B2).
  8. Press ENTER.

If you plan to take some time off in between the start and end date, stick these dates in a separate column and add them as a range to your formula. Have a look at Xmascountdown.xls to see a helpful example of how many days to work until Christmas assuming you take the week of the 22nd off. Speaking of which .. Most of you will probably take that week off, so I have decided this will be the last tip for 2014. Wishing you all a relaxing break!