The WORKDAY function returns a date which is a specific number of workdays away from the start date including days removed for recognized holidays.

• The syntax for the function is WORKDAY (start_date, days, holidays) .

The "start_date" must be a string or a recognizable date format in Excel. "days" is the number of days before or after the start date. "holidays" can be a range of cells containting holiday dates or a series of date values representing dates that are not to be included.

The workday function can be used to calcuate expected invoice or shipment arrival dates. For example if a shipment is expected in 30 working days from the order date over a period where there is only one national holiday. The calcualtion would look like: WORKDAY ("5/6/2007", 30, "5/28/2007") = 6/18/2007 where 5/28/2007 is memorial day in the USA. Which means that you can expect the package by June 18 2007.

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.

Note: If the cell containing the function WORKDAY is not formatted to display dates the result will appear as a number. In the above example the number would appear as 39251, the date serial number. 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).