Does the period start have to be a working day itself?

No, if it is not, counting simply begins from the first working day on or after it, without treating the non-working start date as any kind of error.

Can this find the last business day of a month directly?

Not as a single dedicated option here, since it counts forward by ordinal position rather than backward from the end. The Business-Day Solver or First / Last Business Day of Period covers that need directly instead.

Nth Business Day Calculator

Find the date of, for example, the third working day of a month.

Need to solve for a count or start date instead? See Business-Day Solver.

Worked example

March 1, 2027, is a Monday, so it counts as the first business day of the month under a standard Monday-through-Friday workweek, and the third business day works out to March 3, a Wednesday, with each subsequent working day counted in order from that starting point. Ask for the tenth business day from that same March 1 start instead, and the calculator lands on March 12, a Friday, correctly skipping both intervening weekends along the way.

Common mistakes

Assuming the period start date is skipped and counting begins from the next day. If the start date itself is a working day, it counts as the first one, not the second.
Expecting a preset holiday calendar to be applied automatically. Only the standard workweek pattern is checked here, with no holiday exclusions built in.

Limitations

This checks the selected workweek only, with no holiday preset applied automatically. A count that needs holidays excluded should use the Holiday Impact Calculator alongside this one.

Frequently asked questions

Does the period start have to be a working day itself?: No, if it is not, counting simply begins from the first working day on or after it, without treating the non-working start date as any kind of error.
Can this find the last business day of a month directly?: Not as a single dedicated option here, since it counts forward by ordinal position rather than backward from the end. The Business-Day Solver or First / Last Business Day of Period covers that need directly instead.