Comments on: How to conditionally format dates and time in Excel with formulas and inbuilt rules

See how to apply Excel conditional formatting to dates. Learn how to use formulas to highlight weekends and holidays, format cells when a value is changed to a date, shade upcoming dates and delays, conditionally format dates based on the current date, and more. Continue reading →

Comments page 21. Total comments: 1245

  1. I have an interesting problem. I have a spreadsheet that has 3 sheets, one as an overview that the workbook opens to, and 2 with expiration dates.
    The expiration dates are on Emp_Data sheet and Vehicle_Data respectively, I use the formula on the main page to calculate remaining time before expiry:
    =IF(DATEDIF(B2,Emp_Data!B4,"y")=0,"",DATEDIF(B2,Emp_Data!B4,"y")&" years,")
    &IF(DATEDIF(B2,Emp_Data!B4,"ym")=0,"",DATEDIF(B2,Emp_Data!B4,"ym")&" month(s), ")
    &IF(DATEDIF(B2,Emp_Data!B4,"md") = 0,"",DATEDIF(B2,Emp_Data!B4,"md")&" Days")
    This formula removes the year/month/day if it returns a 0. B2 is the current date, and Emp_Data!B4 is the expiration date.
    What I want to do is have conditional formatting for dates that go below 15 days remaining, and another for fields that are above 15 days. Because I use separate sheets, it does not seem to be possible. I have attempted to use condition formatting for numbers, text, and dates for the field, to no avail.
    I have attempted to use a formula to convert the remaining time to days, in a separate field, however, I cannot apply conditional formatting with just one field, as they are all different dates.

    1. You can actually do this. When you are in the conditional formatting screen, you click on the button at the end of the text box and you can change the sheet that it is pulling the information from.

  2. I have a spreadsheet that documents the date when our students respond to questions and I would like to highlight only the first cell of the new date so that when I enter a new date, it will change to same color.

    example:

    student name question date
    john question1 02/15/16 (highlighted)
    Abraham 02/15/16
    elina 02/15/16
    sarah 02/15/16
    lorry 02/15/16
    phil 02/15/16
    phil 02/16/16 (highlighted)

  3. Hello,

    I am trying to conditionally format on dates. With expired dates (which would be over 1 year past current date) turning red, no date being yellow and any date that is current(within 1 year of current date)green.

    Is there a way to format that?

  4. Dear Team,

    I have created excel work book for hotel reservation.There are two sheets named Reservation sheet and I have put dates horizontally & Room numbers vertically into it.In the other sheet (Named Guest booking list) I have put
    Guest Name,ID,arrival date, departure date and room number respectively.I want to fill in reservation sheet cell according to the dates stay when I put the room number into guest booking list.

    Therefore please let me know the If function or relevant method to make this easy.

    Thank you.

  5. This was super, super helpful. Thanks so much for putting together this guide!

  6. =AND(M2>=TODAY(), M2<TODAY()+3) - whats wrong with this formula

  7. Hi,

    I have an excel file in which I am trying to change the cell color(red, yellow, or green) based on the date in the cell minus 0 days (red), 5 days (yellow), and 10 days green. Is that possible? THis is an award tracker and I want to the cell to change color based on proximity to the due date.

  8. I would like to create a formula to find duplicate company names, as well as find those that occur quarterly (ex: In Oct,Nov, and Dec because current month is January).

  9. I have a date in column b that i want highlighted if it is 61 days older than the date in column a

  10. Hello,
    I am working on a spreadsheet where I am tracking IP addresses that show up in our IDS logs. Column B contains the IP address, Column C contains the country code for the IP address, and Column D contains the date that the IP address was reported. I want to highlight the IP address's if it has already be entered into the spreadsheet. I did this with this formula in a conditional format: =COUNTIF($B$2:$B$99,$B2)>1

    I want to take it one step further. I only want to highlight the IP address in Column B if the date of the previous match is greater than 7 days from today. I can't figure out how to get this additional condition. Any help would be really appreciated!

    Jon

  11. Hi, I have a column with different dates (ex: Expected Dates of Arrival) that I need to change colors:
    yellow - 60 days before arrival
    orange - 30 days before arrival
    red - 14 days before arrival

  12. how can i highlight greater dates from today dates

  13. I have a simple spreadsheet that I input dates when a customer is billed. Can I apply conditional formatting to highlight the latest date entered? In other words, say this one customer was billed on 12/30/16 (which is highlighted because it is the latest date) and then he is billed on 1/15/17. I would like the 1/15/17 date to then be highlighted, and the 12/30/16 to become unhighlighted. Is this possible?

  14. I need formula help on the below date related conditional formatting:

    i have leave start date in e5 & end date in f5 and i have allocated 365 individual columns from column i5 for individual dates.

    i want the cells to be highlighted in different color once i have input the Leave Start date & End Date.

    How to do it?
    Thanks,

  15. I have a worksheet to track workorders. I have a column that gives Start Date as "1/1/17 6:00 AM" or "M/D/YY TIME"

    I have seen a few comments on Time, I would like the cell to "fill" if the time is before 7:00 AM or after 5:00 PM.

    Is there a way to make this happen?

    Thank you for your "Time" ;)

  16. I am trying to use conditional formatting to highlight a cell if another cell has a date that is after 1/1/17 and before 12/31/17

  17. I have a yearly calendar set up days and months and all I want to do is change just the year. There has to be a faster way than hitting each individual spot and backspace 1 spot, type new number and then hit enter. Is there a formula that I haven't been able to find or a shortcut to do the whole thing at once? I can send it via email if needs be to show what I am working with. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

  18. hi,

    thanks alot for this useful tutorial, and i have a question :

    i am trying to use those 2 conditional formatting formulas :

    =AND(E$2:K$2=TODAY()+1,HOUR(NOW())>2)

    and this formula :

    =AND(E$2:K$2=TODAY(),HOUR(NOW())<=2)

    where the range E$2:K$2 is a table head and contains a sequence of current week dates

    i want to highlight the column in the table which has tomorrow's date on the table head cell only if the current real time is after 3:00 AM, And if not, i want to highligt the column which has today's date (not tomorrow's) ?????

    note : the range that each of the 2 conditional formatting formulas applies to is $E$4:$K$134 which is my table without the head cuz i don't want to highlight the head.

    i am getting tired trying to do that, can u help me?

    and thanks alot :)

    1. hhhhhhhhhhh finally it worked ! Yes !!

      the right formulas should be :

      =AND(E$2=TODAY()+1,HOUR(NOW())>2)

      =AND(E$2=TODAY(),HOUR(NOW())<=2)

      still really want to thank u, ur tutorial helped me alot, thanks.

  19. Hi team,
    Please, can you help me with this?

    I have a spread sheet which contains a date range i.e. 12/02/17 ( column B ) and 13/04/17 ( Column C ) ( Both in Row 2 ). I would like column B and C to turn yellow if Today's date is in that range only.

    Thank you in advance ! Really appreciated !

    1. try selecting column B & C then make conditional formating which contain the following formula :

      =B$2:C$2=TODAY()

      and choose the wanted formatting

      1. Thanks Jim, but that formula did not work. We are looking to use a formula that will format a time period window. Example we need Cell B2 and C2 to change formatting when todays date is less then C2 and greater than B2.

  20. Hello,

    I have a spreadsheet where all I need to do is for the row colour to change to grey when the date at the beginning of the row is in the past. I can't find the formula anywhere that will make it work!

    Thanks

    1. try selecting the rows then make conditional formating which contain the following formula :

      =$A1:$A9<TODAY()

      where i suppose that A is the column that has the dates (the rows heading), and the rows is 1 to 9

      and choose the wanted formatting (gray)

  21. Hello: Hoping that someone can assist. I have a spreadsheet that has column E containing 'approval dates' and column F containing 'expiration dates'. I want to use conditional formatting to column F to turn green if the date in the cell is 30 days or more from expiration date; yellow if it is within 30 days of the expiration date and red if it is 30 days or less from the expiration date. Thank you.

  22. Hi there,
    wonder if you could assist with a problem I'm having?

    I have a spread sheet which contains a date range i.e. 01/01/16 - 10/01/16. Each date in a separate cell.
    On another sheet I have a calendar. I am wondering if there is any way I can have a formula so that the day in the calendar is automatically filled with a number/coulour when that date range has been entered in previous sheet or else the day remains blank.
    Many thanks

  23. Hi,

    Thank you for the great assistance you all are providing in this blog.

    My question is, I have a column in excel that contains (varying dates in certain cells and blank cells with dates yet to be entered).

    I am hoping to create a formula for the entire column that initiates a green fill in the cell that contains a date (30 days after the date range specified). I hope this makes sense.

    Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Kind Regards, Paul

  24. Hi,

    I want to conditional format date & time (in same cell dd/mm/yy hh:mm) with respect to another cell(in reference cell dd/mm/yy hh:mm), please help

  25. Hi.
    I'm looking to generate an automatic RAG (Red, Amber, Green)status for a spread sheet based on today's date and future dates calculated on today's date.
    In other words, if an activity is on time, it will format as green, if it is behind time by, say, 2 weeks, it will be amber and anything beyond, say, 4 weeks will format as red.
    The icons seem to be the way to do this, however, I am struggling with the correct formula.
    Can you help please?
    Thanks

  26. sorry should read B5 B6 etc

  27. i have successfully formatted dates in relation to today as i wanted, with your help thanks.
    however it is formatting when no date is inputted in the cell. how do i correct this?
    =TODAY()-$B$4>=15 (highlighted RED) this is the format used.

      1. Works great thanks.
        another i can do this for a single row, however when i try to apply to the rest of the page this is still referencing the original cell $B$4.
        how to I make it reference the corresponding row C4 D4 etc.
        i have tried removing the $ but this makes the formula invalid.

        help

  28. Hi, could you please write for me the formula for calculation the duration between two dates with a condition like

    10 Aug 2016 but it is required to consider 21 Oct 2016

    Minus

    21 Nov 2016 but it is required to consider 20 Nov 2016

    Required date difference is (21 Oct 2016 - 20 Nov 2016)

  29. I have a spreadsheet with various dates - two of which are:
    Start Date Actual completion date

    I want to be able to add a colour to the Actual Completion date field if the date entered is 30/60/90 days after the start date (ie 30days=green,60days=amber, 90days=Red) but I can't work out how to do it.
    Can you help please

    1. Hi Karen,

      You can create three rules with the following formulas:
      1. For the red color:
      =$B1-$A1 >= 90
      2. For the amber color:
      =$B2-$A2 >= 30
      3. For the green color:
      =$B2-$A2 < 30
      Make sure that the rules are in the following order: red, amber, green.
      The Start date values are in A1:A100, the Actual completion date values are in B1:B100.

  30. Hello,

    I have created a live-spreadsheet for Orders with 'Date Required' and 'ETA' columns in them.

    I would like the dates in the 'ETA' to be highlighted if they are greater than the dates stated in the 'Date Required' column.

    I can get this to work on individual Rows through Conditional Formatting but cannot repeat the process on a large scale through-out the entire sheet.

    Please let me know if you can help.

  31. Hi
    I need to highlight time in Green if within the 30 minute window of the stipulated shift timings and Red everything beyond that. We have 3 shifts with 9am, 10am & 11am.
    Can you help, I am struggling to do that.
    Thanks & Regards

      1. Hi Team,
        This is how it is and I need to highlight the one's which are compliant within the agreed time in that shift

        In Timing
        S.#Name Shift (AM)Monday Compliant Tuesday Compliant
        1Aditi 10:00 9:00 Yes 9:15 Yes
        2Anshuja 10:00 10:00 Yes 9:45 Yes
        3Archana 11:00 11:00 Yes 11:00 Yes
        4Arunjit 11:00 10:25 Yes 10:45 Yes

  32. I have a date in column e and then in column f I have added 3 years to when I need an update to renew what is in column e. Now I would like to know how I can get column a to turn red when it is 60 days before column f is due.

  33. Hi
    Cell A2 is the Invoice Submitted date (1 Sep 16) and B2 is the payment release date ( 10 Oct 16). Now I want the entire row to be highlighted in yellow color 10 days before the payment clearence date is near
    And second I want the entire row to be highlighted in red color if payment is not done on time

    1. Hi satya,

      You can create two rules with the following formulas:
      1. For the red color:
      =$B2-$A2>=10
      2. For the yellow color:
      =$B2-$A2<10
      Make sure that the rules are in the following order: red, yellow.

  34. Hello, i'm creating the list of documents in my storage. In column E i have "Retention Start Date, column F is "Retention Period. and column G is "Retention End Date". What i would like to do is to get the cells in the "Retention End Date" to turn red when it reaches a end date in real time. For example, if the start date is 10/12/16, and retention period is 7 years, the next column would be 10/12/23, and it should only be highlighted in red when the end date is equal to the computers date. Is this possible? How can i do this?

    1. Hi Hamizan,

      You can create a rule with the following formula:
      =$G2=DATE(YEAR($E2) + $F2, MONTH($E2), DAY($E2))

  35. I have to log complaints in a database and am looking for a better way to follow-up if there has been no response provided. I am to receive a response within 48 hours of receipt of the complaint. I would like to use the conditional formatting to highlight the date received column for the complaints I have not received a response from within this time-frame.
    So far this the formula I have come up with =IF(IF(Y2="",IF((TODAY()-$A2>2),"followup",""),"")="followup",TRUE,FALSE).

    After using this formatting, in the "Date Received" column it didn't highlight the date of the complaint that has the "Date Resolved" cell blank/gone beyond the 2 day timeframe. I don't know exactly what else I need to input to make it work, but I am determined to figure out why.

    Thanks I hope this make since!

  36. Hi,
    I have a spreadsheet used for tracking training dates for employees and supervisors. I need a formula for highlighting the supervisors recurrent training date a year from their initial training for just 1 column. I used the formula: =TODAY()-$L4>=365 and formatted it to turn red when it is over a year, which worked great; however, not everyone on the spreadsheet is a supervisor so those cells under that column are either blank or "N/A". How do I include the blank and N/A cells so they are not highlighted?

  37. Hi,
    i've been working on this spreadsheet which has a column for the "date of recieving comments", and another for "date of resubmission".Assuming we hav 13 days time between the 2 dates, is it possible to include a column that alerts about the deadline.
    can u suggest a method to do it?
    thanku

  38. Hi,

    Please help, =IF(DAY(F6)=1) is not working in my sheet. i want to change the dates 1-7 = Color 1, 8-15 = Color 2 and so on...

    Thanks

    1. Hi ripudaman,

      You can create different rules to change the color, for example:
      1. For 1-7 days:
      =DAY($B1)<=7
      2. For 8-15 days:
      =AND(DAY($B1)>7, DAY($B1)<=15)

  39. Hi

    Can you please tell me how can I find a number of particular value from a column...

    For e.g.: suppose 'Type' column has five type with 1000 records I want to find a number of records belong to particular type in a different excel sheet cell.

    Thanks.

  40. Great work. Thanks a lot.

  41. WORKDAY will work perfectly for what I need to do, but I want to include weekends in my calculations. What formula do I use instead of WORKDAY?

    1. Hi Aly,

      If you are referring to the formula in comment 252, you can just use the TODAY() function:

      Golden rule: =AND($A2>=TODAY()-2, $A2<TODAY())

  42. Please help me of my worksheet I need formula that will notify me the start date and end date. Thank you Svetlana.

  43. I currently use an Excel spreadsheet to track patient appointments and due dates for quarterly/annual exams, etc. I would like to be able to enter the date of the last exam and use conditional formatting to program the cells to change color as the due date for their next appointment becomes more and more urgent. If a patient was seen 12/1/16, would need to be seen again after one year. I would like the cell to turn yellow after 6 months, orange after 9 months, and red when overdue (after one year). Can you help?

    1. Hi Calvin,

      You can create three rules with the following formulas:
      1. For the red color:
      =TODAY() >=DATE(YEAR($A1) + 1, MONTH($A1), DAY($A1))
      2. For the orange color:
      =TODAY() >=DATE(YEAR($A1), MONTH($A1) + 9, DAY($A1))
      2. For the yellow color:
      =TODAY() >=DATE(YEAR($A1), MONTH($A1) + 6, DAY($A1))
      Make sure that the rules are in the following order: red, orange, yellow.
      The "patient was seen" values are in Column A.

  44. I am trying to create a spreadsheet using hire dates, to alert me to when an employee's anniversary is coming up that month! What formula would I need to use in conditional Formatting in order to achieve this goal?

  45. I have 2 columns. One is the start date, the other is the end date. I would like the third column to show "Active" or "Expired" depending on the "end date" in column 2.
    Thank you!!

    1. Hello Christine,

      You can use a formula similar to this, where B2 is the end date:
      =IF(B2<TODAY(), "Expired", "Active")

      Please note, this task does not require making a conditional formatting rule. You just enter the formula in the top cell, and then copy it down the column as usual.

  46. I currently have an excel with dates in columns I thru AA. Dates do not begin until row 4. Those cells have dates of the last time training was completed. It is all annual requirements or semi-annual requirements. I am trying to display dates more than one year old as red; dates between 1 year and 9 months as yellow, and dates 9 months to today as green. Are there any formulas that would assist in that? Thank you.

    1. Hi Dan ,

      You can create three rules with the following formulas:
      1. For the red color:
      =TODAY() >=DATE(YEAR($A1) + 1, MONTH($A1), DAY($A1))
      2. For the yellow color:
      =TODAY() >=DATE(YEAR($A1), MONTH($A1) + 9, DAY($A1))
      3. For the green color:
      =TODAY() >= $A1
      Make sure that the rules are in the following order: red, yellow, green.

  47. Hi,

    I want to display COMPLETE in green, IN PROGRESS in Yellow, PENDING in grey color based on date comparison between two columns and today's date.
    I tried conditional formatting option -> Use a formula to determine which cells to format
    and the formula used was =IF(D2<TODAY(),"COMPLETE","IN PROGRESS"). But it is not working.
    Can you suggest ...

  48. Hi, in column F I have due dates, and in row 1 I have dates as well for time going by. How do I do conditional formatting so that the following for example happens:

    Cell E2 has a date of 8th of November, and AK1 also has a date of 8th of November. I want to have AK2 to then colour orange. And I would want to apply this to the whole table.

    Thanks,

  49. I have start date in A2 cell and End date in B2 cell, looking for conditional date differance in C2 as if End date is not defined then differance should be C2=Today-A2, if End date is defined then C2=B2-A2
    Please Help

  50. I am trying to apply conditional formatting to times related to swimming which are in minutes, seconds and milliseconds. Currently the times are formatted in a Custom Format of mm:ss.00. I've tried the formula option without success. Basically I'm looking to be able to make a cell turn yellow when a swimmer's time is within a second of a current time standard (i.e., greater than 0 seconds but less than or equal to 1 second). How do I go about achieving this conditional formatting? Thanks

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