Dates function
MONTH
Which month is this date in?
Purpose
Pull the month out of a date
Returns
A number from 1 to 12
Syntax
=MONTH(date)
| Argument | Required | What goes here |
|---|---|---|
date | Required | The cell holding the date, usually A2. |
How to use MONTH
MONTH gives back the month number, so January is 1 and December is 12.
It answers the cut-off question: is this transaction in the period it is dated in, or has it landed in the wrong one.
On its own it is not enough. October 2025 and October 2026 both give 12, so a test that only looks at the month will happily accept a year-old invoice.
Examples
Every result below is worked out by the same evaluator that marks your answers, on the sheet shown here.
| A | B | C | D | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reporting date | 2026-10-31 | |||
| 2 | |||||
| 3 | Invoice | Invoice date | Terms (days) | Amount | Customer |
| 4 | INV-9001 | 2026-07-14 | 30 | 1200 | Calder Utilities |
| 5 | INV-9002 | 2026-08-29 | 30 | 640 | Brightwell Paper |
| 6 | INV-9003 | 2026-09-03 | 45 | 3100 | Meridian Freight |
| 7 | INV-9004 | 2026-09-30 | 14 | 455 | Thornbury Print |
| 8 | INV-9005 | 2026-10-12 | 30 | 2080 | Calder Utilities |
| 9 | INV-9006 | 2026-10-27 | 60 | 725 | Ashgrove Catering |
| Formula | Result |
|---|---|
=MONTH(B4)July, as a number. | 7 |
=MONTH(B9)=MONTH(B1)The invoice is dated in the reporting month. | TRUE |
=IF(MONTH(B6)=MONTH(B1),"In period","Out of period")A September invoice against an October reporting date. | Out of period |
=COUNTIF(B4:B9,">=2026-10-01")The other way to ask the same question, comparing whole dates rather than taking them apart. | 2 |
Notes
- Check the year alongside the month, or two different Octobers will be treated as one.
Related
Practise MONTH in Unit 25
A reference tells you what it does. A unit makes you use it.