Alym LabsExcel for Accounting
← All functionsTaught in Unit 27 · The DATEDIF function
Dates function

TODAY

Today's date, which changes every day.

Purpose

Return the current date

Returns

Today's date, recalculated every time the workbook opens

Syntax

=TODAY()

TODAY takes no arguments. The brackets are still written, empty.

How to use TODAY

TODAY takes no arguments and gives back the date the machine thinks it is.

It is the wrong thing to put in a schedule, and this is the single most useful thing to know about it. An ageing built on TODAY reports different figures next week from the ones it reported when it was signed, and there is nothing in the file to say what date it was run on.

A schedule ages against its reporting date, which lives in a cell of its own at the top of the sheet. Every formula points at that cell. Change it and the whole schedule moves to the new date on purpose.

TODAY belongs in a working file that nobody keeps: a quick check of what is overdue right now, a scratch calculation, a default in a form.

Examples

Every result below is worked out by the same evaluator that marks your answers, on the sheet shown here.

Receivables ageing — October.xlsxSheet1
A receivables schedule with its reporting date above the data, the layout a real ageing uses
ABCDE
1Reporting date2026-10-31
2
3InvoiceInvoice dateTerms (days)AmountCustomer
4INV-90012026-07-14301200Calder Utilities
5INV-90022026-08-2930640Brightwell Paper
6INV-90032026-09-03453100Meridian Freight
7INV-90042026-09-3014455Thornbury Print
8INV-90052026-10-12302080Calder Utilities
9INV-90062026-10-2760725Ashgrove Catering
FormulaResult
=DAYS(TODAY(),TODAY())Nought today, and nought tomorrow. The only kind of example about TODAY that can be printed in a reference, which is itself the point.0
=YEAR(TODAY())>=2026True whenever you run it, because the answer does not depend on which day it is.TRUE
=DAYS(B1,B4)What an ageing should do instead: measure against the reporting date in B1, which is written down and does not move.109

Notes

  • Nothing on this site has an answer that uses TODAY, because an answer that changes daily could not be checked.
  • TODAY recalculates whenever the sheet does, so a figure you printed yesterday will not be the figure on screen today.
DAYSHow many days between two dates.DATEDIFHow long between two dates.EOMONTHThe last day of a month.DATEBuild a date from its three parts.
Practise TODAY in Unit 27

A reference tells you what it does. A unit makes you use it.