Work calendar and calculating working days
A work calendar defines which days of the year are working days and which are weekends or public holidays. It sets the norm of working days and hours for a month or any other period.
What a work calendar is
A work calendar labels the days of the year as working, weekend or public holiday, including official day shifts. It follows the region’s statutory list of non-working days and the company’s schedule (five-day week, six-day week, shift work). From it you can read the working-time norm: how many working days and hours fall in a month, quarter or year.
Calculating working days in a period
Calculating working days means counting the working days between two dates, excluding weekends and holidays. You need it to express the length of a vacation, business trip or sick leave in working days, a task’s deadline, or a period’s end date. Days before a holiday often have a shorter shift, and that is reflected in the hours norm too.
Time tracking
Time tracking compares the calendar norm with the hours each employee actually worked. On that basis you build the timesheet, count overtime and undertime, pay and leave balances. An accurate calendar is essential: an error in the holidays distorts both the norm and every calculation that depends on it.
The calendar in a unified HR system
In a single HR tool the work calendar is maintained once and serves as a shared foundation for adjacent processes: leave requests, HR document workflow and the employee ESS portal. Shared data and access rights mean the working-days calculation for a period always runs against one current calendar, with no manual reconciliation. An isolated instance and white-label let you configure your own non-working days and day shifts for a specific country and company.
Key takeaways
- A work calendar labels each day of the year as working, weekend or holiday
- Calculating working days = counting working days between dates, minus weekends and holidays
- The calendar’s working-time norm is the base for timesheets, leave and pay
- Pre-holiday days are usually shortened, which affects the hours norm
FAQ
How is a work calendar different from an ordinary one?
An ordinary calendar shows dates and weekdays. A work calendar additionally labels each day as working, weekend or holiday with official day shifts, so you can use it to compute the working-time norm and the working days in a period.
How do I count the working days in a period?
Take every day between the start and end date and remove weekends and holidays per the work calendar. The remaining days are working days. In an HR system this is automatic because the calendar is already loaded.
Are shortened pre-holiday days taken into account?
Yes. In most schedules the working day before a holiday is one hour shorter, and that shows up in the working-time norm. When counting hours such a day is partial; when counting working days it is a normal working day.