Working Days Calculator
Calculate business days between two dates, excluding weekends and holidays.
About the Working Days Calculator
The Working Days Calculator counts business days between two dates, excluding weekends and any holidays you specify. By default, only Sunday is excluded (Saturday counts as a working day in many Middle Eastern and Asian countries); check the “Saturday as weekend” option to use the Western convention (Saturday and Sunday both excluded). Add your own holidays as YYYY-MM-DD dates, one per line, to match your local public-holiday calendar.
Working-day counting is the basis of service-level agreements, project deadlines, contract notice periods, shipping estimates, and statutory waiting periods. A 30-day SLA typically means 30 business days, not 30 calendar days — the difference can be a full week or more. A “net-30” invoice payment term is usually 30 calendar days, but some contracts interpret it as 30 business days; always verify the convention.
The calculator handles the inclusive-boundary question (both start and end dates count) and the holiday-on-weekend question (a holiday that falls on a Saturday or Sunday is not double-counted — it just does not add another non-working day). For European works councils that mandate 30 days of paid leave, the working-day count is what matters, not the calendar-day count.
How It Works
The calculator walks day-by-day from the start date to the end date (both inclusive). For each day, it determines:
- Day of week: via
cur.getDay(), which returns 0 (Sunday) through 6 (Saturday). - Is weekend? Sunday is always a weekend day. Saturday is a weekend day if and only if the user has checked the “Saturday as weekend” option. This matches both Western convention (5-day work week, Mon-Fri) and Middle Eastern / South Asian convention (6-day work week, Sun-Fri or Sat-Thu).
- Is holiday? The date is formatted as
YYYY-MM-DDand looked up in the user-provided holiday set. If found, the day is treated as non-working even if it falls on a weekday. - Is working day? A day is a working day if it is neither a weekend nor a holiday. The calculator increments the working-day counter.
Holidays are stored in a JavaScript Set for O(1) lookup. Each holiday is checked against the strict regex /^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/ to ensure valid date format. Invalid holiday entries (typos, wrong format, non-existent dates like 2024-02-30) are silently ignored — you should verify your holiday list before relying on the result.
The calculator distinguishes between “holidays in range” (counted regardless of weekday) and “holidays that fall on weekends” (which do not actually remove a working day, because the weekend already did). The latter is reported for transparency — if a national holiday falls on a Saturday in a country that already treats Saturday as a weekend, the effective working-day reduction is zero, and the calculator reflects that.
The “average per week” figure is business / (total / 7) — the working-day density across the period. For a standard Western work week (5 working days out of 7), this is approximately 5.0. Variations indicate the period contains more or fewer weekends and holidays than average.
Worked Examples
From June 1 to June 30, 2024 (a 30-day month) with Saturday excluded and the holiday June 19 (Juneteenth, a U.S. federal holiday) gives 20 working days. The breakdown: 30 calendar days, 10 weekend days (4 Saturdays + 5 Sundays + 1 holiday on a Wednesday), 1 holiday, 0 holidays on weekends, 20 working days, average 4.7 working days per week (because Juneteenth reduced the average).
From January 1 to December 31, 2024 (full year) with Saturday excluded gives 261 working days before holidays. The U.S. has 11 federal holidays, of which 1 falls on a Saturday (Veterans Day, observed Friday November 11) and 0 fall on a Sunday in 2024. So 261 - 10 = 251 working days after subtracting the 10 holidays that fall on weekdays. (The 11th holiday, Veterans Day, falls on a weekday but is sometimes observed on Friday — this is jurisdiction-specific.)
From March 1 to March 31, 2024 with Saturday NOT excluded (Middle Eastern convention, 6-day work week) gives 27 working days (only the 4 Sundays excluded). With Saturday excluded, the count drops to 23 (4 Saturdays + 4 Sundays = 8 weekend days excluded).
For a 90-day project starting March 1, 2024: with both weekend days excluded and no holidays, that gives 65 working days (about 13 5-day work weeks). If the project requires 65 working days of effort, it finishes around May 24, 2024 — not May 30 (which would be 90 calendar days from March 1).
When to Use This Tool
- Verifying SLA compliance: computing business days between incident report and resolution.
- Project planning: estimating project duration in working days and converting to calendar dates.
- Contract management: counting notice periods, cure periods, and payment terms (net-30 vs net-30-business-days).
- HR and payroll: computing paid-leave balances in working days (common in Europe and Australia).
- Shipping and logistics: estimating delivery times excluding weekends and national holidays.
- Court filing deadlines: counting statutory waiting periods in business days (many jurisdictions specify business days, not calendar days).
- Cross-cultural scheduling: handling Middle Eastern (Sun-Thu) vs Western (Mon-Fri) work weeks.
Limitations & Disclaimer
This calculator counts working days by walking day-by-day through the date range and checking each day against the weekend and holiday rules. It does not handle holiday observance rules (e.g., “if July 4 falls on Saturday, observed on Friday”) — you must enter the observed date manually. The default weekend convention is Sunday-only (Saturday is a working day); for Western conventions, check the Saturday option. The holiday list is user-provided — you are responsible for entering the correct holidays for your jurisdiction and verifying the format (YYYY-MM-DD). The calculator counts both start and end dates inclusively; for exclusive counting, subtract 1 from the result. For shift work, part-time schedules, or non-standard work weeks (e.g., 4-day work weeks, rotating shifts), use a dedicated workforce-management tool. See our disclaimer for full terms.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the calculator count both start and end dates?
Yes — both are inclusive. From Monday to Friday of the same week is 5 working days, not 4. If you need exclusive counting (the convention for hotel nights, rental periods, or age-in-days), subtract 1 from the result. Always verify the convention against your specific contract or SLA before relying on the result.
How do I add my country's public holidays?
Enter each holiday as a YYYY-MM-DD date on its own line in the “Holidays” textarea. You can find lists of public holidays for your country on Wikipedia or government websites. For multi-country operations, you may need to run separate calculations per country or maintain a combined holiday list (each holiday applies regardless of which country’s calendar it comes from).
What happens if a holiday falls on a weekend?
The calculator does not double-count it. If June 19 (a Wednesday in 2024) is a holiday, the calculator removes one working day. If July 4 (a Thursday) is a holiday, it removes one working day. If December 25 (a Wednesday) is a holiday, it removes one working day. The calculator reports “holidays that fall on weekends” separately so you can see when this occurs.
Why does my result not match my payroll system?
Payroll systems often use different conventions: some count only Monday-Friday, others include Saturday, some observe “holiday observance” rules (if a holiday falls on a Saturday, it is observed on Friday; if on a Sunday, observed on Monday), and some exclude company-specific holidays. Always verify the convention with your HR or payroll team.
Does the calculator handle regional holiday variations?
Yes, but only manually. Enter the holidays that apply to your specific region. U.S. federal holidays differ from U.S. state holidays (e.g., California Admission Day, Texas Independence Day). EU member states have different holiday calendars. The calculator is country-agnostic — you provide the holiday list that matches your jurisdiction.
How does the calculator handle the Saturday convention?
By default, only Sunday is excluded (Saturday counts as a working day). This matches the convention in many Middle Eastern and South Asian countries where the work week runs Sunday-Thursday or Saturday-Thursday. Check the “Saturday as weekend” option for the Western convention (Mon-Fri work week, Sat-Sun weekend). The default reflects the global business norm but may need adjustment for your specific region.
Last updated: July 21, 2026 · Author: HT99 Tools Editorial Team · Reviewed by: HT99 Tools Editorial Team