Excel 2000 in a Nutshell

Name

DAYS360

Synopsis

If you are performing accounting calculations, DAYS360 provides the ability to quickly determine the number of days between two dates, but it bases its calculations on a 360-day year that equates to twelve 30-day months. Therefore, it assumes that February always has 30 days, (no more leap years) and months like January dates that actually have 31 days, are calculated as 30 days.

In most cases, the best way to determine the number of days between two days is to use DATEDIF. DAYS360 should only be used in different accounting calculations, such as determining the interest that should be charged for a payment. Refer to Chapter 12, for more detailed information about accounting time periods.

To Calculate

=DAYS360(Start_Date, End_Date, Method)

You must specify values for the Start_Date and End_Date arguments. The Method argument is optional.

Note

If the date specified as the Start_Date is beyond the date specified for the End_Date, a negative value will be returned by the formula. For example, if the Start_Date is 6/12/98 and the End_Date is 5/13/98, a value of -29 is returned by the formula.

Method

The Method argument is optional. It contains a logical value of either TRUE or FALSE that indicates how Excel should round a date that contains a day value of 31. There are two different methods that are used in accounting to deal with this: the U.S. (NASD) and European methods. If you do not specify a Method argument Excel assumes a value of FALSE and it calculates based ...