The difference between
business days or calendar days is one of those that generates the most doubts,
either when planning vacations, in judicial and administrative procedures, etc.
Therefore, being clear about these two concepts will help us avoid deadline
problems, among others.
What are calendar days?
The concept calendar
days refers to "every day of the year". That is, the 365 days of the
year. Here there is no difference between holidays or weekends. It does not
matter if a day is a business day or a holiday: they are all calendar days.
Calculation of calendar days
To calculate calendar
days, all days must be taken into account. For example, if we need to count 15
calendar days in a term and it is March 31, the end of the term will be April
15.
What are business days?
Until recently, the
consideration of business days generated many doubts, since the Administration
was not clear about it either. This lack of clarity caused confusion and
problems at different times. For this reason, Law 39/2015 was approved, which
establishes that business days are those that go from Monday to Friday, without
counting weekends. Thus, currently, Saturdays and Sundays are considered
holidays and non-working days.
Calculation of business days
As we have said, in
accordance with the aforementioned Law, business days will be counted from
Monday to Friday, without counting holidays, whether national, regional or
local.
Continuing with the
previous example, if today is March 31 and we have a term of 15 business days,
this would end on April 15. However, if within this period there are holidays,
such as Easter (2 days), this period will end on April 17.
What is a non-business day?
In addition to
calendar days and business days, you must also know how to compute non-business
days. In accordance with the Common Administrative Procedure Law, these will be
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
What is a business day?
The working days are
those in which the labor activity is carried out; usually Monday through
Friday. However, and depending on the activity of a company, it is possible
that Saturday is considered work. This does not mean that it becomes a business
day, since both concepts are different. Thus, for a worker who has a working
day from Monday to Saturday, the working days will be those on which he works.
However, for the purposes of the Administration, Saturday will be a
non-business day and will not count for any term that has business days as a
reference.
As the working hours
are not the same in all contracts or for all workers, to find out which days
are working days, we must consult the annual work calendar that the company
provides us. Employee vacations will also be reflected in this calendar.
When calculating
vacations, companies offer 30 calendar days a year or 22 business days.
Are Saturdays business days?
Based on what we have
seen above, we can conclude that Saturdays are not generally business days, but
they could be for some companies, depending on their activity.
What is better, natural or weekday
vacations?
The way in which
vacation days are generated through the performance of work activity can be
indistinctly 22 working days or 30 calendar days per year. Let's see what are
the differences between them and which option is better:
Holidays on working
days correspond to the total number of days that you should go to work and not
go. For example, someone working from Monday to Friday who goes on vacation for
two weeks would use a total of 10 days of work vacation. To calculate how many
working days you have generated during your work time, you can take the
calculation of 1.8 days for each month worked.
Within calendar days
vacations are counted every day from the last day worked and the first day upon
return to work, including weekends and holidays. To choose natural vacations,
you will have to calculate 2.5 vacation days per month and plan well the days
you are going to take. For example, to enjoy a long weekend, 3 vacation days
will be used if we take off on Friday, as opposed to one if we take off on
Monday.
Civil and Administrative Law:
calendar or business days in requirements
The days of term that
they give us in various procedures with the Administration are what usually
generates more doubts. Therefore, we must be clear about the difference between
calendar days and business days to calculate this term. Thus, at the beginning
of each year, the Administration must establish which days are considered
natural and which days are considered working days. Therefore, when in doubt,
it is best to go to the Administration's website and see how the days are
cataloged there.
The difference between
calendar days and business days is one of the most frequent, especially when
faced with Administration deadlines. For this reason, Law 39/2015 was approved,
through which the criteria are unified and each one of them is established
annually.