Whenever you place an order online, visit your bank for any matter, or have to communicate with an office, the resolution period of 2-3 working days is mentioned. In most official matters, whether regarding education or business, business days or working days are commonly used terms.
Although there is a general understanding of the working days and business days, many doubts still exist. Whether the business days counted as the normal days? Is a business day 24 hours long or less? Are weekends included in the business days? And a lot of such questions.
This article is all about a business day or working day, how it is calculated, and commonly asked questions about the duration of working days and which days are not working days. So let’s get into it without a further ado.
What is Business Day?
We can define a business day as,
Normal business operation days except weekends and public holidays are considered working days or business days.
Besides, if we try to comprehend it in a more detailed way, a business day can be defined as,
A business day is a unit of measurement of time that is specifically used for referring to business operations days. In general, the working day or business day is considered from 9 a.m. to 5 a.m., and the practice is followed in all the Western countries. However, the business days are not included in the weekends and public holidays.
If we apply the definition of business days to the financial securities industry, it’s any day when the financial markets are open for trading. Banks, businesses, financial institutions, etc., are the most common places where business days are observed from Monday to Friday with weekends off.
How Many Business Days In A Week?
There are five business days in most countries and institutions. However, some institutions might observe six days as normal operations days. When full-time employment is discussed, 40 hours a week is considered a full work week. However, the exact hours can range between 35 to 40 hours. Some companies are working at an exemption with 50 hours as a full working week.
Generally, five days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., is considered a complete business week. Therefore, it must be understood that a working day doesn’t consist of 24 hours. Instead, a working day or business day is 8 hours long.
Example To Understand 2 Business Days
Calculating the business days depends on which day you’re considering as the starting point. For instance, if you want to know two business days from Monday, it will include Tuesday and Wednesday as the two business days between Monday and Thursday. If you want to find two business days starting from Friday, two business days will be concluded on Tuesday.
If we define two business days from any given day of the week, it will be something as follows:
- Monday to Wednesday –2 business days
- Tuesday to Thursday –2 business days
- Wednesday to Friday –2 business days
- Thursday to Monday –2 business days
- Friday to Tuesday –2 business days
- Saturday to Tuesday –2 business days
- Sunday to Tuesday –2 business days
The scenarios, as mentioned, all make two business days. However, if we look at the last three scenarios, it is more than two normal days. There are four days between Friday and Tuesday, Thursday to Monday and three days between Saturday and Tuesday. However, weekends are not counted in business days. Therefore, the scenarios are made as shown.
How can we calculate the business days?
You can use a business date calculator to calculate whatever business days you want. Here is a step-by-step guide to calculating business days:
- Enter the starting date which you want to treat as a starting point of calculation.
- The next step is adding the number of days you want to calculate from the starting point. You can also add or subtract the public holidays or weekend days using add/subtract feature of the calculator.
- Once done, specify the days to be included or excluded by drop-down menus of days in results. You can also change country or state to see the accurate results because some days might be public holidays in certain countries.
- Click on calculate the new date, and you will find the answer.
Two business days comprise 16 hours as one business day has 8 hours.
How Long is 1 Business Day?
One business day is any day from Monday to Friday. Each business day comprises 8 hours. Therefore, it is not rocket science to calculate one business day. Whenever you’re asked how long one business day is, you can tell it is 8 hours, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
FAQs
Here are the most commonly asked questions about business days and the answer to these questions.
How to calculate business day?
We have discussed the process of calculating the business days for any purpose. You can simply use the business calculator as we have discussed above. Besides, every business day has 8 hours.
You can start counting and calculating from that day and time at which any institution tells you that it will take 2 or 3 working days.
How long is two business days?
The definition and appropriation of two business days can be different for different scenarios. It solely depends on which day you’re counting. If you count from Friday, it will be two business days on Tuesday. If you count it from Monday, it will be two business days on Wednesday.
What will be two business days from Friday?
You can calculate business days from any given day. Friday is the last working day or a business day of the week. In case we have to calculate, two business days from Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be excluded. After excluding the weekend days, the two business days will be completed on Tuesday.
Is the weekend considered in calculating business days?
Saturday and Sunday are the weekend days in most Western countries. Therefore, the weekend days are not included in the business days calculation. However, there are some countries where Friday and Saturday are observed as the weekend. If you’re to calculate business days in one of such countries, Friday and Saturday will be excluded as weekend days.
Do different countries observe different business days?
Yes, the business days can vary depending on the country you’re residing in. However, in most parts of the world and the whole West, weekdays except Saturday and Sunday are considered the weekend.
Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Morroco, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Israel, etc., follow Friday and Saturday as a weekend. Yemen and Afghanistan follow Thursday-Friday weekends.
How long are seven business days?
Seven business days do not work like the normal days of the week. As two days weekend is observed around the world, seven business days will be nine normal days, excluding the weekends.
Therefore, if you’re to calculate seven business days from Monday, it will include Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday as seven business days.
Who created business days?
You might be wondering who came up with the idea of working five days a week and having a two-day weekend?
Although the formal orders for observing two days as the weekend, five working days, and 40 hours a long week were given by President Franklin Roosevelt in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, President Herbert Hoover initiated the idea of reducing work hours.
Besides, the contribution of Henry Ford, an industrialist, cannot be ignored in setting the stage for the idea of the 40-hours long week.
Is business day and working day the same?
Business day and working day are the words that are used alternatively. Therefore, the meaning is the same in both cases if you see the words working days instead of business days.
How many hours are in a full work week?
A full-time work week comprises five days from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 40 hours are generally considered as the full work week. However, anything between 35 and 40 hours can be considered a full work week.
