“How many days did that actually take?” is a different question from “how many calendar days sit between the start and end date.”
A ten-day gap might only hold seven working days once weekends are removed, and fewer still once public holidays are excluded too.
NETWORKDAYS() answers the real question instead of the calendar one.
What NETWORKDAYS Does
NETWORKDAYS(start date, end date) counts the working days between two dates, automatically excluding Saturdays and Sundays. Add a third argument, a list of holiday dates, and it excludes those too:
NETWORKDAYS(start date, end date, holiday dates)
That second form is what makes the function useful across regions. A task run out of Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia does not share the same public holidays, so a single “working days” figure that ignores this will be wrong for at least two out of three countries. Feeding country-specific holiday dates into the formula fixes that.
The Scenario
Alex Wong manages tasks across three countries and needs an honest picture of how long each one actually takes, not a figure inflated by weekends and holidays that were never working time to begin with. He built a Task table alongside a Holiday table so NETWORKDAYS() could calculate both a basic working-day count and a more accurate one that accounts for each country’s public holidays.
Setting Up the Tables
Task table
- Task: The name of the task, such as Website Development or Payroll System Setup.
- Start Date and End Date: When the task begins and ends.
- Country: Where the task is carried out, since this determines which public holidays apply.
- Working Days: The basic count, excluding weekends only.
- Net Working Days: The more accurate count, excluding weekends and that country’s public holidays.
- Holiday record: A one-way link to the Holiday table, supplying the relevant holiday dates into the NETWORKDAYS() calculation.
- Remarks: Notes on anything affecting the task’s timeline.
Holiday table
A separate table holds public holiday dates for each country, split across three tabs so each country’s list stays easy to maintain.
Each record holds a Date, a Holiday Name, and the Country it applies to. Keeping this list current is what makes the Net Working Days figure trustworthy: NETWORKDAYS() can only exclude the holidays it has been given.
Building the Formulas
Working days, weekends only
NETWORKDAYS(Start Date, End Date)
This gives a basic working-day count with weekends removed, before public holidays are taken into account.
Net working days, weekends and holidays
NETWORKDAYS(Start Date, End Date, Holidays record)
Adding the linked holiday records as a third argument excludes each country’s public holidays as well, so the result reflects the working days actually available for the task.
Seeing the Difference
Here is the Task table before Alex adds a new entry:
Alex needs an accurate duration for a new Product R&D task, so he fills in the form: task name, start date, end date, and country, with Working Days and Remarks alongside.
Once submitted, the record appears in the Task table with both figures calculated automatically.
Running from 2 June 2025 to 2 January 2026, the Product R&D task shows 155 working days once weekends are excluded. Once Malaysia’s public holidays in that period are excluded as well, the figure drops to 148 net working days, a seven-day difference. Those seven days are Agong’s Birthday, Hari Raya Haji, Awal Muharram, Merdeka Day, Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday, Malaysia Day, Deepavali, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, minus the ones that already fell on a weekend. That gap is exactly the kind of scheduling error a weekends-only count would miss.
Practical Use Cases for SMEs and Startups
- Multi-country project tracking: Compare task durations fairly across teams in different countries, each with their own public holidays.
- Service-level performance: Measure how long a support ticket or request genuinely took to resolve, in working time rather than calendar time.
- Vendor and contractor deadlines: Check whether a delivery date allows enough actual working days once public holidays are accounted for.
- Payroll and leave planning: Calculate accurate working-day counts for contractors or part-time staff paid by the day.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What does the NETWORKDAYS function do in Lark Base?
It counts the number of working days between a start date and an end date, automatically excluding Saturdays and Sundays. Adding a third argument of holiday dates excludes those as well.
How do I exclude public holidays from a NETWORKDAYS calculation?
Add a third argument referencing a field or linked table containing the relevant holiday dates: NETWORKDAYS(Start Date, End Date, Holiday dates).
Can NETWORKDAYS handle different holidays for different countries?
Yes, as long as the holiday dates you reference match the task’s country. Storing holidays in a separate table with a Country field, and linking each task to the correct set, is what makes this work across regions.
Why is my Net Working Days figure the same as my Working Days figure?
This usually means no public holidays fall within that task’s date range, or the holiday link field is empty or pointing to the wrong country’s records.
Does NETWORKDAYS count the start and end date themselves?
Yes. Both the start date and end date are included in the count, provided they are not weekends or listed holidays.
What happens if I don’t maintain the holiday table?
The Net Working Days figure will only be as accurate as the holiday dates available to it. An outdated or incomplete holiday list will understate how many days were actually excluded.
Measuring Time the Way Work Actually Happens
Calendar days are easy to count and rarely useful on their own. NETWORKDAYS() gets you closer to the number that matters: how many days a task genuinely had to get done, once weekends and the holidays specific to that task’s country are properly accounted for.
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