Business Days Calculator
Working days (Mon–Fri) between two dates, minus your public holidays.
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About this calculator
Contracts, SLAs, courts and payroll count working days, not calendar days. This calculator walks the real calendar between your two dates, counts only Monday to Friday, and subtracts the public holidays you tell it about — giving the number that legal and commercial deadlines actually use.
The formula
Business days = weekdays between the dates − public holidays on weekdays
Worked example
1–31 July 2026 contains 22 weekdays; with no holidays in the period, 22 business days.
Common mistakes
- Estimating with days × 5/7 for short spans, where the start weekday changes the answer materially.
- Forgetting regional holiday differences — Scotland and Northern Ireland have different bank holidays from England & Wales.
- Missing that some contracts define 'business day' to exclude additional dates (e.g. Christmas week shutdowns).
Frequently asked questions
Count the public holidays that fall Mon–Fri inside your range. England & Wales has 8 in a typical year; check a holiday list for your exact span.
No — counting starts the day after the start date and includes the end date, matching common legal convention. Verify your contract's wording.
The weekday count is universal; enter that country's public holidays for the period.
Assumptions & limitations
Monday–Friday working week; you supply the holiday count for your jurisdiction.
Sources & verification
- UK bank holidays — GOV.UK — official dataset for England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
All sources last accessed 24 July 2026.
Formula last verified: 24 July 2026
Next scheduled review: Bank-holiday data reviewed annually when GOV.UK publishes the next year’s dates
Maintained by: Steve Davis, Founder & Editor — see our editorial standards
Spotted an error or an out-of-date figure? Report it — corrections are prioritised over all other work (see our corrections policy).
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