Calculating "clear days"

Hi Simon,

Thank you for the forum question.

To calculate "clear days" in Excel—where you exclude the start date and count a specific number of days afterward (e.g., 14 days)—you can use a simple formula depending on whether you want to include weekends or not.

If you want to exclude the start date and count calendar days:
Use:

excel
=StartDate + NumberOfDays


But since you want to exclude the start date, you add 1 less day:

excel
=StartDate + 14


This gives you the date 14 clear days after the start date, not counting the start date itself.



If you want to **exclude weekends** (i.e., count only working days):
Use the `WORKDAY` function:

excel
=WORKDAY(StartDate, 14)


This also excludes the start date by default and counts 14 working days forward.

If you want to **include holidays, use:

excel
=WORKDAY(StartDate, 14, Holidays)


Where `Holidays` is a range of cells containing holiday dates.



Example:
If `A1` contains `08/07/2025` (July 8, 2025), then:

=A1 + 14` → July 22, 2025 (14 calendar days after, excluding start date)
=WORKDAY(A1, 14)` → July 26, 2025 (14 working days after, excluding start date)



Kind regards

Jens Bonde
Microsoft Office Specialist Trainer

Tel: 0207 987 3777
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