Add one month to a month in excel

How to Add Months to a Date in Excel (In 3 Easy Ways)

In this tutorial, you will learn how to add months to a date in Excel. We show you how to do this with the EDATE function and the MONTH and DATE functions. You will also learn how to create a series with a starting date with the Fill Series feature. But why would you need to do any of this?

If you are calculating product expiry dates or delivery dates, you will need to add months to starting dates. This will be covered in the sections with using functions to add months, years, or days. We will also go over how to deduct months to return an earlier date. The Fill Series feature will cover how to list a series of dates e.g. for an event that takes place monthly on the same day.

Let’s get adding!

Table of Contents

Using EDATE Function To Add Months to a Date

The EDATE function can be used to add months to a date in Excel. The EDATE function adds or deducts given months from a date and returns the relevant serial number. Using the formula below, we will add and deduct months mentioned in a separate column with the EDATE function:

Column B contains the manufacturing dates of products and column C has their shelf life mentioned in months. Our objective is to arrive at the expiry dates by adding the shelf life to the manufacturing dates. The EDATE function takes the date from cell B3 and adds the number of months in C3 to arrive at the expiry date. The date will however return as a serial number. Format the target cells to a date format to convert the serial numbers to dates.

The same formula applies for deducting months from dates. E.g. To arrive at an advance booking date for offering discounts, we would have to deduct the number of months from the regular booking date. For that, the months will be entered as negative values and the same formula will be applied to arrive at an earlier date:

The second argument can take a numeric value instead of a cell reference. But that would be more convenient if all the dates need the same number of months added.

Adding Years to a Date

The second argument of the EDATE function can be adjusted to add years to the dates. This is the formula we are using to add years to dates with the EDATE function:

The values in column C represent the shelf life of products in years. The second argument of the EDATE function will take them as months, therefore the second argument is multiplied by 12. In this way, the years are added to the dates using the EDATE function:

Using MONTH & DATE Functions

Another way of adding months to dates involves the MONTH function. The MONTH function itself returns the number of the month from a date. Using the DATE, YEAR, and DAY functions with the MONTH function we can add months to a date. To add months to a date, we will use the following formula:

The DATE function takes a year, month, and day argument to return a date in a serial number (dates are stored as serial numbers in Excel). The YEAR, MONTH, and DAY functions are used to pick the year, month, and day from the date in B3. But with the MONTH function, we have added the value in C3 i.e. 1 in this case. This will add 1 month to the date in B3 and return the date with 1 month added:

The formula is also applicable for deducting months from dates.

For adding years or days to dates, the given numbers can be added to the YEAR or DAY functions within the DATE function, in the same way they were added to the MONTH function.

E.g. To add 1 day to the date July 1, 2025, the formula will be edited to:

This formula will return July 2, 2025

To add 1 year to the date July 1, 2025, the formula will be edited to:

This formula will return July 1, 2026

Using Fill Series Feature

The Fill Series feature adds a consistent number of months, days, or years to a date. These are the steps for using Fill Series to add a set number of days, months, or years to a date:

• Select the date and the target cells where you want the dates to be filled.

• In the Home tab, from the Editing section, select the Fill icon and then select Series from the menu.

• In the Series dialog box make the following selections:
  • the Columns radio button from the Series in section,
  • the Date radio button in the Type section,
  • the Day radio button in the Date unit
• In the Step value field, enter the increment value for the number of days.
• For adding 7 days to the dates, we are entering the number 7 in the provided field.

• When done, click on the OK
• The series will be created with the incremental value and filled in the selected cells:

• Follow the same steps to create a series with incremental months, selecting the Month radio button in the Date unit
• Enter the incremental value in the Step value field e.g. we are entering the number 2 for creating a series with 2 months.

• The series with 2 incremental months will be created in the selected cells:

• Similarly, create a series with 1 added year by selecting the Year radio button and adding 1 as the Step value:

This fills the selected cells with a series of dates with 1 added year:

Now we add a wind-up. Today you learned how to add months to a date in Excel with various functions and the Fill Series. The methods in this guide allow you to add varying months, years, or days to each date or create a series with incremental values. We won’t be adding months to your wait for the next Excel trick, so stay tuned!

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How to Add Months to Date in Excel (Easy Formula)

Sometimes, when working with dates, you may want to know the date after a specific number of months.

For example, you may want to know the date three months after a specific date.

Thankfully, Excel has an in-built function (EDATE) that does exactly this.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to use a simple formula to add or subtract months to a date in Excel.

This Tutorial Covers:

Add Months to a Date

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to add the given number of months in column B to the dates in column A.

This can be done using the EDATE function.

Below is the syntax of the EDATE function:

• start_date – the date for which you want to get a certain number of months before or after it
• months – the number of months before or after the start date. In case that you want to subtract months, you need to enter a negative number, since the function is by default adding months to a date.

In our example, we want to add 5 months (cell B2) to May 31, 2021 (A2) and get the result in cell C2.

The formula in C2 looks like:

The result is October 31, 2021, as this is a date 5 months after May 31, 2021.

Note that you can use the same formula to add months as well as subtract months from any given date.

In our example, we have a couple of month values that are negative. When used in the formula, these will give you the date which is the specific number of months ago in the past.

Also, the formula will only consider the integer part of the second argument. So if enter 1.5 as the months to be added to the date, you will still get the date after one month (anything after the decimal is ignored).

Note: The prerequisite of the function is that columns containing a start date (column B) and a result date (D) are formatted as dates.

Add Years to a Date

Apart from adding months to a date, you can also use the EDATE function to add years.

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below where you want to add the number of years in column B to the dates in column A

Below is the formula that will do this:

The result in C2 is May 31, 2022, which is 1 year after May 31, 2021. As you can see, the parameter months is 12 (1 year * 12 months).

Also, since we are multiplying the month’s value with 12, you can also use decimal numbers as years and it should still work in most cases. For example, if you want to know the date after 1.5 years, you can do that (as 1.5*12 is 18, which is an integer).

This way, we can use the EDATE formula to also make the function to add/subtract years from a date.

So this is a simple formula method you can use to add months or years to a date in Excel.

I hope you found this tutorial useful!

Other Excel tutorials you may also like:

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Add or subtract dates

Suppose you want to adjust a project’s schedule date by adding two weeks to see what the new completion date will be, or you want to determine how long a single activity will take to complete in a list of project tasks. You can add or subtract a number of days to or from a date by using a simple formula, or you can use worksheet functions that are designed to work specifically with dates in Excel.

Add or subtract days from a date

Suppose that a bill of yours is due on the second Friday of each month. You want to transfer funds to your checking account so that those funds arrive 15 calendar days before that date, so you’ll subtract 15 days from the due date. In the following example, you’ll see how to add and subtract dates by entering positive or negative numbers.

Enter your due dates in column A.

Enter the number of days to add or subtract in column B. You can enter a negative number to subtract days from your start date, and a positive number to add to your date.

In cell C2, enter =A2+B2, and copy down as needed.

Add or subtract months from a date with the EDATE function

You can use the EDATE function to quickly add or subtract months from a date.

The EDATE function requires two arguments: the start date and the number of months that you want to add or subtract. To subtract months, enter a negative number as the second argument. For example, =EDATE(«9/15/19»,-5) returns 4 /15/19.

For this example, you can enter your starting dates in column A.

Enter the number of months to add or subtract in column B. To indicate if a month should be subtracted, you can enter a minus sign (-) before the number (e.g. -1).

Enter =EDATE(A2,B2) in cell C2, and copy down as needed.

Depending on the format of the cells that contain the formulas that you entered, Excel might display the results as serial numbers. For example, 8-Feb-2019 might be displayed as 43504.

Excel stores dates as sequential serial numbers so that they can be used in calculations. By default, January 1, 1900 is serial number 1, and January 1, 2010 is serial number 40179 because it is 40,178 days after January 1, 1900.

If your results appear as serial numbers, select the cells in question and continue with the following steps:

Press Ctrl+1 to launch the Format Cells dialog, and click the Number tab.

Under Category, click Date, select the date format you want, and then click OK. The value in each of the cells should appear as a date instead of a serial number.

Add or subtract years from a date

In this example, we’re adding and subtracting years from a starting date with the following formula:

How the formula works:

The YEAR function looks at the date in cell A2, and returns 2019. It then adds 3 years from cell B2, resulting in 2022.

The MONTH and DAY functions only return the original values from cell A2, but the DATE function requires them.

Finally, the DATE function then combines these three values into a date that’s 3 years in the future — 02/08/22.

Add or subtract a combination of days, months, and years to/from a date

In this example, we’re adding and subtracting years, months and days from a starting date with the following formula:

How the formula works:

The YEAR function looks at the date in cell A2, and returns 2019. It then adds 1 year from cell B2, resulting in 2020.

The MONTH function returns 6, then adds 7 to it from cell C2. This gets interesting, because 6 + 7 = 13, which is 1-year and 1-month. In this case, the formula will recognize that and automatically add another year to the result, bumping it from 2020 to 2021.

The DAY function returns 8, and adds 15 to it. This will work similarly to the MONTH portion of the formula if you go over the number of days in a given month.

The DATE function then combines these three values into a date that is 1 year, 7 months, and 15 days in the future — 01/23/21.

Here are some ways you could use a formula or worksheet functions that work with dates to do things like, finding the impact to a project’s schedule if you add two weeks, or time needed to complete a task.

Let’s say your account has a 30-day billing cycle, and you want to have the funds in your account 15 days before the March 2013 billing date. Here’s how you would do that, using a formula or function to work with dates.

In cell A1, type 2/8/13.

In cell B1, type =A1-15.

In cell C1, type =A1+30.

In cell D1, type =C1-15.

Add months to a date

We’ll use the EDATE function and you’ll need the start date and the number of months you want to add. Here’s how to add 16 months to 10/24/13:

In cell A1, type 10/24/13.

In cell B1, type =EDATE(A1,16).

To format your results as dates, select cell B1. Click the arrow next to Number Format, > Short Date.

Subtract months from a date

We’ll use the same EDATE function to subtract months from a date.

Type a date in Cell A1 and in cell B1, type the formula =EDATE(4/15/2013,-5) .

Here, we’re specifying the value of the start date entering a date enclosed in quotation marks.

You can also just refer to a cell that contains a date value or by using the formula =EDATE(A1,-5)for the same result.

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Add Months to Date using EDATE Function (Step by Step with Examples)

In Excel, we have a built-in function called EDATE which adds the specified number of months to the supplied date and returns the next specified month for the same day. Before we show you how to use the EDATE function in Excel, let us introduce you to the syntax of the EDATE function.

=EDATE(start_date, months)

Assume you have taken a TV on EMI for six months. In addition, EMI will be deducted on the 05th of every month. Therefore, you need to create an EMI chart with the same date every month. For example, the first EMI is on 05-02-2019.

Top 5 Useful Examples

You can download this Add Months to Date Excel Template here – Add Months to Date Excel Template

Example #1 – Different Results in Case of February

Assume you had taken the loan and EMI due is on the 30th of every month. The first will be on 30th Oct 2018, and EMI is for six months. Let us apply the EDATE function to arrive at all the month’s due dates.

If you notice the above function, the first thing is when it ends the year 2018 in Dec. After that, it automatically jumped to the next year, i.e., 2019 (refer to C5 cell).

The second thing is in February 2019, which is a non-leap year. So, it has only 28 days. So, the formula has returned the due date as 28th Feb 2019.

Example #2 – Special Due Date for Leap Year

Now, we will take an example of a year that has a leap year. In case of a leap, the, year formulaThe year function in excel is a date function to calculate the year from a given date. This function takes a serial number as an argument and returns a four-digit numeric value representing the year of the given date, formula = year (serial number)read more will return on 29th Feb, not the 28th Feb.

Example #3 – Get Previous Months with a Negative Number

We have learned how to get next month’s date from the current date. What if we need to get the previous months from the current date?

Assume we have the starting date as 05th Sep 2018, and we need to go back for six months.

We must apply the EDATE function but in the no. of months to add mention -1 as the argument.

Example #4 – Other Ways to Add Months to Date in Excel

We can take months to days by using other methods as well. It is a complicated method, but we show this to you.

Here, the DATE function in excelThe date function in excel is a date and time function representing the number provided as arguments in a date and time code. The result displayed is in date format, but the arguments are supplied as integers.read more extracts the year, month, and day from the above. So, the only thing we have done here is adding +1 to the month for all the cells.

Example #5 – EDATE with Other Functions

We can use the EDATE with other functions as well. For example, assume we want to count the number of invoices generated from a certain date to a certain date. We need to use the EDATE functionEDATE is a date and time function in excel which adds a given number of months into a date and gives us a date in a numerical format of date. It takes dates and integers as input, the output returned by this function is also a date value. read more.

We have the below formula to count invoices from Count No. of Invoices from 17th Nov 2018 to 16th Dec 2018.

Things to Remember

• In the number of months, we can add any number. If the date falls next year, it will automatically change the year.
• If leap year comes, Feb last date will be the 29th. If not, it will be the 28th.
• A positive number will give future months, and a negative number will give previous months.
• If the date format is not there for the starting date, we will get the #VALUE! Error.

Recommended Articles

This article has been a guide to Add Months to Date in Excel. We discuss adding months to date in Excel using EDATE Formula, practical examples, and a downloadable Excel template. You may learn more about Excel from the following articles: –

• Excel Date Formula
• Date Excel Format
• Convert Date to Text in Excel
• Insert Date in Excel