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Excel TODAY Function

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Chala mitrano — today TODAY. Empty brackets, live calendar date. Use it when the sheet must always mean ‘as of now’.

Fictional sample data for learning. HR leave and invoice due dates (Pune + Manchester). Mixed ₹ and £. Fictional staff list.

Purpose

Return today’s date. Updates when the workbook recalculates — perfect for ‘as of today’ reports.

Return value

A date serial for the current day (time midnight).

Syntax

TODAY()

Arguments

ArgumentRequired?Description
(none)—TODAY takes no arguments. Type TODAY() with empty brackets.

Version

All Excel versions. LibreOffice Calc and Google Sheets too.

How to use — Why → What → How

Why: Managers ask how many days late as of today. Hand-typed dates go stale. TODAY keeps ageing and leave balances honest. HR leave trackers in Pune and Manchester stamp ‘as of today’ without typing the date. In Indian back offices and foreign sister teams, TODAY shows up on leave, SLA and invoice sheets every week.

What: TODAY() returns the current date with no time. Format as Date. It recalculates when the file opens or calculates. Read every argument in the table once before you type; each one changes the answer on purpose.

How — numbered steps:

  1. Click the cell for the live date.
  2. Type =TODAY() and press Enter.
  3. Format as Date.
  4. Use inside other formulas, e.g. =B2-TODAY().
  5. For a frozen audit stamp, Paste Values over TODAY.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Friends, after you learn TODAY, open a real leave or invoice sheet and find one cell this function would fix this week.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Friends, sleep on TODAY and rebuild example 1 tomorrow without looking.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Friends, say the business question in plain words before you type =TODAY.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Friends, after you finish TODAY, open yesterday’s real workbook and find one place this function would have saved ten minutes. That habit turns lessons into salary skills.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Friends, treat TODAY like a seatbelt on date sheets — use it before a manager asks why the deadline slipped.

Download practice file: practice-today.xlsx (includes sheet About this data, practice sheets, and Answers).

Worked examples

1) Stamp today’s date

Pune HR sheet header.

LabelValue
Report date(formula)
Formula: =TODAY()

Result: (live date on your PC)

What it means: Shows the calendar day when the sheet calculates.

2) Days until due

Manchester invoice due 15 Nov 2026; assume today 31 Oct 2026.

DueCityAmount (£)
2026-11-15Manchester420
Formula: =A2-DATE(2026,10,31)

Result: 15

What it means: Whole days remaining. Negative means overdue. (Use TODAY() in live sheets.)

3) Ageing days

Surat vendor bill 1 Oct 2026.

Bill dateVendor₹
2026-10-01Kale Traders18500
Formula: =DATE(2026,10,31)-A2

Result: 30

What it means: Days since bill — feed into IF for ageing buckets.

4) Title with TEXT

Dashboard title.

Title
Leave balance
Formula: ="As of "&TEXT(DATE(2026,10,31),"dd-mmm-yyyy")

Result: As of 31-Oct-2026

What it means: TEXT formats a date for labels.

5) Overdue flag

Kochi renewals.

DuePlan₹
2026-10-20Basic999
Formula: =IF(A2<DATE(2026,10,31),"Overdue","OK")

Result: Overdue

What it means: Compare due date with today for status.

6) Freeze snapshot

Audit pack needs a fixed date.

MethodResult
Live TODAY()updates
Typed datefixed
Formula: 31-10-2026 (typed or Paste Values)

Result: 31-10-2026

What it means: Snapshots must not move overnight.

Common errors and fixes

Wrong day — PC clock wrong. Fix: Fix system date.
Shows time — Format includes time. Fix: Date format only.
Shows 45300 — General format. Fix: Apply Date format.
Changed overnight — Needed freeze but used TODAY. Fix: Paste Values.

Notes and tips

  • Revisit the TODAY errors table after the quiz — most classroom mistakes are listed there.
  • Build one brand-new example on a blank sheet from memory before you close the laptop.
  • If a result looks wrong, check date formats and regional settings before changing the formula.
  • Share one tip from this page with a classmate in Marathi or Hindi — teaching locks the idea.
  • Keep currency symbols consistent inside a single report column even when practice mixes ₹ $ £ € across examples.
  • When Excel versions differ at home and in class, write the fallback under the modern formula in a comment.
  • Classroom drill: invent three TODAY uses on a blank leave sheet from your city.
  • TODAY vs NOW: TODAY is date only; NOW includes time.
  • Fictional sample data only — names, cities and amounts are made for learning.
  • Print the revision card for TODAY and stick it near your monitor for one week.
  • Ask a junior to predict the result before Enter — prediction builds judgement.
  • Note your most common mistake with this function; review it monthly.
  • HR leave trackers in Pune and Manchester stamp ‘as of today’ without typing the date.
  • Excel stores dates as serial numbers; formatting only changes the display.
  • Verify with a known calendar date before trusting a long chain of date formulas.
  • Print the revision card for TODAY and stick it near your monitor for one week of real worksheets.
  • When helping a junior, ask them to predict the result before pressing Enter — prediction builds judgement.
  • Keep a personal notebook of the one mistake you make most often with this function; review it monthly.
  • Share one tip from this page with a classmate in Marathi or Hindi — teaching locks the idea.
  • If a result looks wrong, check date formats and regional settings before changing the formula.
  • Date serial numbers are how Excel stores dates — formatting only changes the display.
  • Share one tip from this page with a classmate in Marathi or Hindi — teaching locks the idea.
  • Keep currency symbols consistent inside a single report column even when practice mixes ₹ $ £ € across examples.
  • Classroom habit: after TODAY, open yesterday’s real workbook and find one place this function saves time.
  • For interviews, explain why calendar days and working days differ on a project that crosses a weekend.

In real work

Classroom drill: invent three TODAY uses on a blank leave sheet from your city. HR leave trackers in Pune and Manchester stamp ‘as of today’ without typing the date. Excel stores dates as serials — formatting only changes display. Classroom drill: write three brand-new TODAY formulas on a blank sheet using names from your own city — if you can invent them without the page open, you own the skill. Then break one formula on purpose and watch the error; recovering from that break is half of interview readiness. Always verify with a known calendar date before trusting a long chain of date formulas. Keep a personal notebook of the one mistake you make most often with this function; review it monthly. When Excel versions differ at home and in class, write the fallback formula under the modern one in a comment cell.

How it compares

TODAY vs NOW: TODAY is date only; NOW includes time.

Interview corner

TODAY vs typed date?
Live ‘as of’ vs frozen stamp.
Freeze for audit?
Paste Values.
Different laptops differ?
Clocks/time zones.

NOW, DATE, DATEDIF, EOMONTH, NETWORKDAYS

Practice tasks (10)

  1. Task 1. Put live report date in B1.
    Empty brackets.
  2. Task 2. Days from a fixed ‘today’ 31-Oct-2026 until due in A2.
    Subtract dates.
  3. Task 3. Flag Overdue when A2 before that date.
    IF compare.
  4. Task 4. Title As of <date> with TEXT.
    Join with &.
  5. Task 5. Explain when NOT to use TODAY.
    Audits.
  6. Task 6. Fix a serial that should look like a date.
    Number format.
  7. Task 7. Days since 2026-10-01.
    Subtract.
  8. Task 8. Note that PC clock drives TODAY.
    Doc cell.
  9. Task 9. Freeze a stamp with Paste Values.
    Values paste.
  10. Task 10. Bonus: years since join using DATEDIF or YEAR.
    Related fn.

Quick quiz

Q1. TODAY needs which arguments?
Q2. TODAY updates when:
Q3. Best use:
Q4. TODAY vs NOW:
Q5. Seeing 45300 means:

Answers: Q1=None, Q2=Workbook recalculates, Q3=Live ageing, Q4=TODAY date-only; NOW has time, Q5=Serial in General format (check after you try).

Revision card

Standalone card (no tip or photo strip). QR opens this lesson. Download the PNG and revise offline.

Revision card: TODAY
TODAY revision card