--- title: "How Working Days Are Calculated in Absence Requests" description: "How Vitextra Absence & Coverage counts the working days of an absence request: the working week, public holidays, half days, worked examples with dates, periods that cannot be submitted, and why changed settings do not recalculate requests that were already sent." url: https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10326 language: en published: 2026-10-28 modified: 2026-10-27 products: - "Absence & Coverage" author: "Vitālijs Kalniņš" tags: ["working days calculation", "absence working days", "half day counting", "public holidays excluded", "working week setting", "WorkDays setting", "vacation days count SharePoint", "Vitextra Absence & Coverage"] --- # How Working Days Are Calculated in Absence Requests How Vitextra Absence & Coverage counts the working days of an absence request: the working week, public holidays, half days, worked examples with dates, periods that cannot be submitted, and why changed settings do not recalculate requests that were already sent. ## Overview An absence request does not count calendar days — it counts **working days**. A vacation from Monday to the following Monday spans eight calendar days but only six working days, and a week that contains a public holiday is not five days long. The number of working days decides how much of your balance a request uses, what the approver sees and what appears in the calendar tooltip and in the CSV export. This article explains the rules the **My Absences** web part applies when you fill in the **New absence request** panel, shows worked examples and clarifies what happens to the number after the request has been sent. --- ## The rules The web part goes through every calendar day from the start date to the end date, inclusive, and adds up the days that count: 1. A day counts as **1** if its weekday belongs to the **working week** and the date is **not a public holiday**. 2. A day that is not a working weekday, or that is listed as a public holiday, counts as **0**. 3. If **Starts at midday (the first day counts as half a day)** is selected, the **first day** counts as **0.5** instead of 1. 4. If **Ends at midday (the last day counts as half a day)** is selected, the **last day** counts as **0.5** instead of 1. This option exists only for periods of more than one day. 5. For a **single day**, only **Starts at midday (the first day counts as half a day)** is available, and the day counts as 0.5. 6. The two half-day options are ignored for absence types that do not allow half days. The working week comes from the `WorkDays` row of the `Settings` list. By default it is Monday to Friday; the administrator can change it — see [KB10355. How to Set the Working Week](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10355). Public holidays come from the `Holidays` list — see [KB10354. How to Add Public Holidays](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10354). If either list is empty or missing, the defaults apply: Monday to Friday and no holidays. --- ## Examples The examples use the default working week (Monday to Friday) unless stated otherwise. | Request | Period (2026) | Result | |:---|:---|:---| | Monday to Friday | 5 Oct – 9 Oct | **5** | | Two weeks; the weekend is skipped | 5 Oct – 16 Oct | **10** | | Wednesday 7 Oct is a public holiday | 5 Oct – 9 Oct | **4** | | **Starts at midday (the first day counts as half a day)** selected | 5 Oct – 9 Oct | **4.5** | | Both half-day options selected | 5 Oct – 9 Oct | **4** | | One day, **Starts at midday (the first day counts as half a day)** selected | Tuesday 6 Oct | **0.5** | | Friday to Monday, **Ends at midday (the last day counts as half a day)** selected | 9 Oct – 12 Oct | **1.5** (Friday 1 + Monday 0.5) | | Saturday to Monday, **Starts at midday (the first day counts as half a day)** selected | 10 Oct – 12 Oct | **1** (the half day falls on a Saturday, which does not count; Monday counts in full) | | Saturday and Sunday only | 10 Oct – 11 Oct | **0** — the request cannot be submitted | | Working week Sunday to Thursday | 5 Oct – 11 Oct | **5** (Monday to Thursday and Sunday) | ![The working days summary in the New absence request panel](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10326/working-days-summary-en.png) *The working days summary in the New absence request panel* 📝 **Note** A weekend or a holiday in the middle of a period is simply not counted — you do not need to split the request. A period that consists only of non-working days has 0 working days: the panel shows the warning "The selected period contains no working days." and the request cannot be sent. --- ## Where the number is stored and used When the request is submitted, the calculated number is saved with it in the `WorkingDays` column of the `Absences` list (a number with one decimal place). From then on, every part of the product reads this **stored value** and does not calculate it again: - the balance cards in **My Absences** — approved and pending requests are added up from the stored days ([KB10328. How to Read Your Absence Balances](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10328)); - the number of days in the request row and in the approver's queue; - the tooltip and the CSV export of the **Team Absence Calendar**. The calendar's shaded columns for non-working days and holidays, in contrast, are drawn from the settings that are current when the page is opened. ❗ **Important** Changing the working week or adding a public holiday affects only requests submitted afterwards. Requests that are already stored keep their number of days. If an old request has to be counted differently, cancel it and submit a new one — see [KB10330. How to Cancel an Absence Request](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10330). --- ## Where to change the rules | What | Where | Article | |:---|:---|:---| | Working week | `Settings` list, key `WorkDays` | [KB10355. How to Set the Working Week](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10355) | | Public holidays | `Holidays` list | [KB10354. How to Add Public Holidays](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10354) | | Half days allowed for a type | `AbsenceTypes` list | [KB10352. How to Add and Configure Absence Types](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10352) | 💡 **Tip** Before you submit a request that borders a weekend or a public holiday, check the summary line in the panel: it shows the exact number of working days and, for types with a balance, how many days remain afterwards. How half days work is described in [KB10327. How to Request Half a Day Off](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10327).