Working Days Calculator with Canadian and US Holidays
Working Days Calculator with Holidays
Business days between two dates, skipping weekends and, if you choose, the Canadian or US federal holiday calendar or your own list. The count follows the usual convention: it excludes the start date and includes the end date.
Observed dates shift a holiday that lands on a weekend to the adjacent weekday, Friday in the US convention and the following Monday in the Canadian one, which is how most workplaces actually take them. Provincial and state holidays vary; add them as custom dates for your jurisdiction.
How to use this tool
Set the two dates, choose a holiday calendar, Canada federal, US federal, or weekends only, and optionally paste your own holiday dates one per line. The tool returns the working day count and shows its work: calendar days in the span, weekend days skipped, and each weekday holiday skipped by name and date, which is the line a schedule narrative or claims letter actually needs.
The observed-dates option shifts a holiday that falls on a weekend to the day most workplaces actually take: the following Monday in the Canadian convention, the adjacent Friday in the US one for Saturdays. Leave it on unless your contract says calendar-date holidays.
What counts as a working day, and who decides
A working day is a weekday that is not a holiday, but which holidays count is a contract question, not a fact of nature. The built-in calendars are the federal sets: ten Canadian holidays including Good Friday, Victoria Day and Truth and Reconciliation Day, eleven US ones including Juneteenth and Thanksgiving. Provincial and state days, civic holidays, and site-specific shutdowns belong in the custom list, and a well-drafted schedule clause names its calendar explicitly.
The moving holidays are computed, not looked up: Good Friday from the Gregorian Easter algorithm, Victoria Day as the Monday on or before May 24, the various nth-Monday rules for Labour Day and both Thanksgivings. That is what lets the tool run correctly for any year rather than only the ones someone remembered to type in.
A worked check you can repeat on paper
Aug 3 to Dec 31, 2026 on the Canada federal calendar with observed dates: 150 calendar days, 42 weekend days, and 5 weekday holidays skipped, Labour Day Sep 7, Truth and Reconciliation Sep 30, Thanksgiving Oct 12, Remembrance Day Nov 11, Christmas Dec 25, with Boxing Day falling on Saturday and its observed Monday Dec 28 also skipped, making 6. The result is 102 working days, and every one of those subtractions is listed in the output table where a reviewer can audit it.
Mistakes that catch people out
Using the wrong calendar. A US-drafted contract administered in Canada, or the reverse, moves several days a year. Fix: the calendar is a term of the contract; match the tool to the words.
Forgetting observed dates. When Canada Day lands on a Saturday, most workplaces close Monday, and a count using the calendar date is off by one. Fix: the observed toggle, on by default.
Double-counting a holiday that falls on a weekend. It is already excluded as a weekend day; excluding it again as a holiday undercounts. Fix: the tool classifies each skipped day exactly once, and the table proves it because the components sum to the calendar total.
Treating the count as inclusive of the start date. Same convention issue as any date difference. Fix: the count excludes the start and includes the end, stated on the tool.
How this was checked
The holiday engine was verified against known dates: Easter 2024, 2025 and 2026 (Mar 31, Apr 20, Apr 5), Good Friday 2026 on Apr 3, Victoria Day 2026 on May 18 and 2027 on May 24, both Thanksgivings, Memorial Day and MLK Day 2026, and the observed-date shifts for July 4, 2026 (Saturday, observed Friday Jul 3 in the US convention) and Boxing Day 2026 (Saturday, observed Monday Dec 28). Working day counts were verified on hand-countable spans including a full January 2026 and a two-day span across Canada Day.
Related Calculators and Reference
For the quick version of this question, the Days From Today Calculator answers what date it will be a set number of days, weeks or months from today, with a link you can bookmark for any interval. Also see the Week Number Calculator: week numbers for planning by ISO week.
The plain calendar span behind any working day count is the Date Difference Calculator. Deadlines stated as N working days from a date are the Add or Subtract Days Calculator, which shares this tools calendars, and weekly hours inside those working days are the Timesheet Duration Calculator.
To count the calendar days to a holiday or any date, with a live countdown, use the Days Until Calculator.