The EDATE function returns the date (serial number) for a set number of months before or after the start sate.

• The syntax for the function is EDATE (start_date, months).

The "start_date" must be a string or a recognizable date format in Excel. "months" is the integer number of months before or after the starting date (negative for before positive for after).

For example:
EDATE ("10/19/2006", 4) = 2/19/2007 which is 4 months from the start date or EDATE("10/19/2006",-6) = 4/19/2006 giving a date 6 months before the start date.

The resulting date will apear as a number if the cell is not formatted to display dates. To format the cell to show this number as a date: right click on the cell and select "Format Cells" then in the dialogue window select the "number" tab and click on "Date". (then press the "OK" button).

Note: It is better to enter the dates into this function using the DATE() function as dates in the forma of text strings can cause problems to occur.