Essential Excel Date Functions Guide: Calculate Workdays and Deadlines with Ease

Date calculations are an essential part of Excel reports. Today, we’ve summarized commonly used date functions for the workplace, including TODAY, DATE, NETWORKDAYS, and EOMONTH, along with examples.

✅ TODAY – Automatically Display Today’s Date

Syntax:

=TODAY()

Example: Automatically update the report creation date

✅ NOW – Current Date and Time

Syntax:

=NOW()

Example: Record the time as well when preparing meeting minutes

✅ DATE – Create a Specific Date

Syntax:

=DATE(year, month, day)

Example: Enter December 25, 2025

=DATE(2025, 12, 25)

✅ NETWORKDAYS – Calculate Workdays

Syntax:

=NETWORKDAYS(start_date, end_date, [holidays])

Example: Calculate workdays from 2025-01-01 to 2025-01-31 (excluding weekends)

=NETWORKDAYS("2025-01-01", "2025-01-31")

✅ EOMONTH – Calculate the Last Day of a Month

Syntax:

=EOMONTH(start_date, months)

Example: The last day of March 2025

=EOMONTH("2025-03-01", 0)

✅ Practical Example 1: Days Remaining Until a Project Deadline

=DAYS("2025-12-31", TODAY())

Automatically calculates the number of days remaining until the project deadline.

✅ Practical Example 2: Calculate Annual Leave Eligibility Date

Annual leave becomes available 365 days after the hire date.

=DATE(YEAR(A2)+1, MONTH(A2), DAY(A2))

✅ Practical Example 3: Number of Workdays in a Specific Month

=NETWORKDAYS(DATE(2025,4,1), DATE(2025,4,30))

Automatically calculates the number of workdays in April.

📌 Summary

• TODAY / NOW: Current date and time
• DATE: Create a specific date
• NETWORKDAYS: Calculate workdays
• EOMONTH: Find the last day of a month

🙋 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Using Excel date functions effectively makes it much easier to manage workdays, deadlines, and schedules. Try them today 🚀