Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: End-of-Month Calculations.

End-of-Month Calculations

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 11, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


1

There are many ways you can use Excel to calculate the date at the end of the next month. One such way, using the EOMONTH function, as described in other ExcelTips. There are ways you can do it, however, without using that add-in function.

For instance, one approach is to AutoFill for the last days. (Sounds almost religious, doesn't it?) Let's say you wanted the last days of a series of months in the first column, beginning at A4. All you need to do is this:

  1. In cell A4, enter the last day of the current month, such as 31 Oct 2012.
  2. In cell A5, enter the last day of next month, such as 30 Nov 2012.
  3. Select both cells, A4 and A5.
  4. Click on the small square handle at the bottom right corner of the selection.
  5. Drag the mouse downward as many cells as desired.

The result is that the area you drag over in step 5 is filled with end-of-month dates for the next however many months. Pretty cool! A slight variation on these steps could also be used:

  1. In cell A4, enter the last day of the current month, such as 31 Oct 2012.
  2. Select cell A4.
  3. Right-click on the small square handle at the bottom right corner of the selection.
  4. Drag the mouse downward as many cells as desired. When you release the mouse button, Excel displays a Context menu.
  5. From the Context menu, choose Fill Months.

If you are not an AutoFill type of person, and instead prefer to use formulas, you could enter the starting end-of-month date in cell A4, and then the following formula in A5:

=DATE(YEAR(A4),MONTH(A4)+2,1)-1

This formula calculates the date for the first day of the month two months in the future, and then subtracts one from it. The result is the last day of the next month. The formula wraps around the end of years just fine, since the DATE function increments the years properly if the month value provided is greater than 12.

Another formulaic approach is to use the following:

=A4+32-DAY(A4+32)

This formula works because it adds 32 to the starting date (to make sure you are past the end of the following month), and then subtracts the number of days the result is past the end of the month.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2181) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: End-of-Month Calculations.

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

Disabling the Caps Lock Key

A few tips and tricks for working around the dratted Caps Lock button.

Discover More

Reducing File Sizes for Workbooks with PivotTables

Need to reduce the size of your workbooks that contain PivotTables? Here's something you can try to minimize the ...

Discover More

Creating Multiple Blank Documents in One Step

Word makes it easy to create a new, blank document. What if you want to create more than one document at a time, however? ...

Discover More

Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Counting Dates in a Range

Excel makes working with a list of dates relatively easy. If you have a list of dates, you may need to know how many of ...

Discover More

Elapsed Days as Years, Months and Days

Need to know how many days there are between two dates? It's easy to figure out—unless you need the figure in ...

Discover More

Calculating Business Days

There are calendar days and then there are business days. Excel provides the NETWORKDAYS function that is helpful to ...

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.

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 6 - 0?

2022-07-06 15:55:24

Rhodessa

Love it!
I didn't know about the context menu
Thank you!


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon 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.