Most of the confusion about business days is not arithmetic. It is about definitions: whether a weekend day counts, whether today counts, and what happens when a holiday gets in the way. This page answers those first and then shows the counting on real examples.
The three terms
| Term | What counts | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar days | Every day, including weekends and public holidays. | Return windows, notice periods, interest, most court deadlines in the US. |
| Business days | Monday to Friday, minus public holidays. | Shipping estimates, bank transfers, contract response times. |
| Working days | Usually the same as business days. Sometimes the days a particular person or company actually works. | Employment contracts, leave, project plans. |
“Business days” and “working days” are interchangeable in everyday use. The difference only matters when a contract defines one of them — and contracts often do, typically as “a day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday on which banks are open for general business in [a named city]”. That named city is the part to check: it decides which public holidays apply.
Are Saturdays business days?
No, not in the standard definition. A Saturday is excluded even if the business in question is open, because “business days” describes a shared calendar rather than one shop’s hours. A courier that delivers on Saturdays still quotes “3–5 business days” counted Monday to Friday.
The exceptions are places where the weekend is different. Several countries, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, have a Friday–Saturday weekend, so Sunday is a business day there and Friday is not. If a deadline crosses borders, the definition in the agreement — or the country of the party who has to act — decides.
Does today count?
Normally not. The standard convention for a deadline in business days is to start counting from the next business day. So:
- An order placed on Monday with “2 business days” processing is due by the end of Wednesday.
- A request on Friday “answered within 1 business day” is due by the end of Monday.
- A request on Saturday is treated as arriving on Monday, so “1 business day” means Tuesday.
Many companies also have a daily cut-off. An order placed after 2 p.m. on Monday is often treated as received on Tuesday, which shifts everything by a day. If a quote says “ships in 1 business day” and it arrived late, the cut-off is usually why.
Legal deadlines follow the same idea but spell it out. In US federal courts, Rule 6(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure says to exclude the day of the triggering event, count every day including weekends and holidays, and extend the deadline to the next business day if the last day falls on a weekend or legal holiday. In England and Wales, the Civil Procedure Rules use “clear days” — neither the starting day nor the event day counts — and leave weekends and bank holidays out of periods of five days or fewer. Those are the rules for court filings, not for everyday deadlines, but they show how precisely “today” has to be pinned down when it matters.
Holidays, and the ones that fall on a weekend
A public holiday on a weekday removes a business day. A public holiday on a Saturday or Sunday changes nothing by itself — the day was already excluded — unless the country moves it to a weekday, which most do:
- United States: a federal holiday on a Saturday is observed on the Friday before, and one on a Sunday on the Monday after. Independence Day 2026 falls on a Saturday, so federal offices close on Friday 3 July.
- England and Wales: a bank holiday on a weekend gets a substitute weekday, always later, never earlier. When Christmas Day and Boxing Day both fall at a weekend, the substitutes stack onto the Monday and Tuesday.
One subtlety catches people out with money: US banks follow the Federal Reserve’s schedule, and the Federal Reserve does not close on the Friday before a Saturday holiday. So 3 July 2026 is a day off for federal employees but a normal business day for most bank transfers. When a payment deadline is involved, check whose calendar the deadline uses.
Worked examples
“3–5 business days”, ordered on a Friday
Friday is day zero. Monday is day 1, Tuesday day 2, Wednesday day 3. Five business days lands on the following Friday. So the delivery window is Wednesday to Friday of the next week — five to seven calendar days after ordering, though the quote said three to five.
“10 business days” is not always two weeks
With no holidays, ten business days from a Monday is the Monday two weeks later — fourteen calendar days. Put a public holiday in the way and it becomes the Tuesday. Put the Christmas and New Year holidays in the way and it can stretch past three weeks.
Business days in a month or a year
A month has 20 to 23 weekdays, depending on its length and which day it starts on; public holidays take a few of those away. A year has 260 to 262 weekdays. The US has eleven federal holidays and England and Wales eight bank holidays, which is why a US year has roughly 250 working days and a UK one roughly 252 or 253 — the exact figure depends on how many of those holidays land on weekdays that year.
Counting without mistakes
- Decide which calendar applies — which country’s holidays, and which days are the weekend.
- Decide whether the start day counts. For deadlines, it usually does not.
- Decide whether the end day counts. For “how long does this project run”, it does; for “how many days until the deadline”, it does not.
- Walk the calendar day by day, skipping weekends and holidays. You cannot get it reliably by dividing by seven.
The business days calculator does step 4 for you, with US federal and England and Wales holidays built in, a choice of weekend, and a switch for whether the end date counts. It also works the other way round: give it a start date and a number, and it tells you the date that many business days away. For a plain count of calendar days between two dates, the date difference calculator is the simpler tool.