Business Days
Humans for their ease have divided a week into working and non-working days.
The non-working days are either termed as Holidays or Weekends whereas, working days refer to days when business is conducted.
Ever did the thought of what exactly is a business day cross your mind?
Let us help you find out.
What is a Business Day?
A business day is a time measured terminology used for hours designated to when business is conducted. These can vary from region to region or country to country.
Hours where financial activities are on the boom, markets are open and trade is being carried out is referred to as a business day.
Generally, a week has a minimum of 5 working days and 2 weekends. These add up to a total of 240 business days a year.
This by the way is just a rough calculation. The stats may differ depending on the regions we are talking about.
Before we proceed any further, we sense some confusion you might be facing in differentiating between a working day and a business day.
Here is how we make it simple for you.
Difference between a Working and Business Day
A working day or a business day is no different. It is just the usage of words that tend to change with time.
Any business that is scheduled at a certain period of time and on a certain day is referred to as a working day in which that particular activity will be performed.
For instance, you intend on shipping your documents from one place to another and you’re being told that the process would complete in two business days. Now here, the term Business Days refer to hours where Business or markets would be open in full swing and trading activities are performed.
Let’s take another example.
Suppose, you called in your bank’s customer care and asked them to lodge a complaint regarding any of your issues. They give you a resolution period of two working days. This would mean that if any holiday or weekend falls in between the working days, those will simply be excluded and not count in the turn-around time suggested.
The majority of countries have their working or business days from Mondays to Fridays. As for Saturday and Sunday, they are fun days or weekends.
But wait. What if someone asks you about how long a business day is?
Our next segment of this blog covers the above-mentioned query you might have too.
How long is a Business Day?
Typically, a business day consists of seven to eight working hours i.e. starting from 900 hours in the morning and summing up at 1700 hours in the evening.
So if someone asks you next time about how long a business day is, let them know it is between eight to ten hours long
For the most part of the USA, business hours are from 9:00 am till 5:00 pm.
Commonly knowing about what a business day is, makes the time calculations easier. It helps to ascertain the time frame required for a trading activity to perform.
Likewise, if it’s about a financial commitment by a bank or an individual – Identifying the time frame on the basis of working days and hours makes it much easier and clear.
Last but not least:
Are Holidays and Business Days any different?
They sure are!
A holiday is when none of the businesses are operational. Sundays, International Holidays, Days announced as Public Holidays are simply not business days.
However, a business day is when you get to trade and carry out your business.
These business days can be as long as eight to ten hours or as short as four to five hours.
