Explanation

Dates in Excel are just serial numbers that begin on January 1, 1900. If you enter 1/1/1900 in Excel, and format the result with the “General” number format , you’ll see the number 1. This means that you can easily calculate the days between two dates by subtracting the earlier date from the later date.

In the example shown, the formula is solved like this:

=C5-B5
=42735-42370
=365

Days remaining from today

If you need to calculate days remaining from today, use the TODAY function like so:

=end_date-TODAY()

The TODAY function will always return the current date. Note that after the end_date has passed, you’ll start to see negative results, because the value returned by TODAY will be greater than the end date.

You can use this version of the formula to count down days to an important event or milestone, count down days until a membership expires, etc.

Remaining workdays

To count remaining workdays, see the NETWORKDAYS function and the example here .

Explanation

In Excel, dates are simply serial numbers. In the standard date system for windows, based on the year 1900, where January 1, 1900 is the number 1. This means that January 1, 2050 is the serial number 54,789.

  • If you are calculating a date n days in the future, you can add days directly as in the first two formulas.
  • If you want to count by months, you can use the EDATE function, which returns the same date n months in the future or past.
  • If you need an expiration date at the end month, use the EOMONTH function, which returns the last day of the month, n months in the future or past.
  • An easy way to calculate the 1st day of a month is to use EOMONTH to get the last day of the previous month, then simply add 1 day.