Calculate Elapsed Time in Excel [Quick Tips]

Calculating elapsed time is very common whether you are managing a project or raising a baby. Elapsed time is nothing but interval between a starting point and the current point in time. We can use excel formulas to calculate elapsed time very easily.

Calculating elapsed time in years

For all the examples in this post we assume the starting date and time from which we need to calculate elapsed time is in Cell A1.

To calculate the elapsed time in years, use the formula =(NOW()-A1)/365 [Help on NOW formula]

Elapsed time in months

To calculate the elapsed time in months, we can use the formula =(NOW()-A1)/30. This returns the value in 30 day months.

Elapsed time in weeks

To calculate the elapsed time in weeks, we use the formula =(NOW()-A1)/7

Elapsed time in days

To calculate elapsed time in days, the formula is simple =TODAY()-A1. [Help on TODAY formula]

The result includes fractions as well. You can use number formatting to remove the values after decimal point.

Elapsed time in working days

To calculate elapsed time in working days, we can use the NETWORKDAYS formula like this = NETWORKDAYS(A1, TODAY()). This formula assumes 5 working days per week starting with Monday. You can also add an optional list of holidays as a parameter to it.

But if your working week is not from Monday to Friday, you can try the NETWORKINGDAYS() UDF in the same way.

Elapsed time in hours

To calculate elapsed time in hours, we can use the formula =(NOW()-A1)*24

Elapsed time in minutes

To find out elapsed time in minutes, use the formula =(NOW()-A1)*24*60

Elapsed time in seconds

In some machine critical scenarios, you might want to find the elapsed time in seconds. Just use the formula =(NOW()-A1)*24*3600

Download the Elapsed Time Worksheet and see the examples

Click here to download the elapsed time worksheet and play with the examples.

More:

Tips on using date & time in excel, List of excel date & time formulas, More excel quick tips