Projects in Process for Each Day in a Range of Dates

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 11, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365

Chelsea's job is to track the historical start and end dates for projects within the company. So, she has two columns for each project that specify the start and end dates. Chelsea needs to generate a report that shows, for a target date range, the number of projects that were being worked on for each day within the target range.

Since all that Chelsea needs is a count of projects (and not additional project information), this can be easily accomplished by using a formula that relies on the COUNTIFS function. Let's assume that the project start dates are in column B and the end dates are in column C. In cells F2:F9 you have the dates you want to check. In cell G2 you can use the following formula:

=COUNTIFS(B:B,"<="&F2,C:C,">="&F2)

You can then copy the formula in G2 down as many rows as necessary. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Counting projects on a particular date.

The formula used in G2 assumes that the start and end dates are inclusive. If they should not be inclusive, then just drop the equal signs from the formula:

=COUNTIFS(B:B,"<"&F2,C:C,">"&F2)

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (13923) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Emoticons in Word

Like to add a smiley or two to your writing? Word makes it easy through creative use of the AutoCorrect feature.

Discover More

Adding Borders to Paragraphs

Want to draw attention to a particular paragraph? A great way to do it is with a border. Word allows you to easily add ...

Discover More

Referencing External Cell Colors

If you want to reference cell colors external to your current workbook, there is no way to do it using Excel functions. ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Adding Area Codes to Phone Numbers

If you keep phone numbers in an Excel worksheet, you may need a way to add an area code to the beginning of all of the ...

Discover More

Putting Amounts in Month Columns

Sometimes putting together a formula can be a challenge. Part of the process, though, is examining the data with which ...

Discover More

Calculating Monthly Interest Charges

Trying to calculate how much people owe you? If you charge interest or service charges on past-due accounts, there are a ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is three more than 5?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.