What is the Difference Between a Business Day vs. a Working Day? Are Saturdays Business Days? How Long are Five Business Days?
Are Saturdays business days? How long is a business day for shipping? How long are five business days?
If you are pondering these questions, then you are not alone. Many of us use the terms regular or working days and business days interchangeably.
This article hopes to clear up this confusion. It will define what a business day is, and all the other necessary things you should know related to the questions in your mind about business days.
What is the difference between a business day vs. a working day?
A business day is defined as any day when normal business operations are conducted. The legal weekdays (British English) or workweek (American English) is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. The other part is the weekend, which is devoted to rest.
In the United States, a business day is typically Monday to Friday. The rest, Saturday and Sunday, are weekends. Like most countries, a business day is a working day where banking institutions are open.
The definition of the business day can vary per region, and in most of them, Saturday is not considered an official business day. Don’t confuse a business day with a working day.
A business day is when official business is carried on like banking, official meetings, correspondence, and others.
A working day, meanwhile, is when the work is conducted. You can carry on doing business on a working day. But it is not officially accepted as standard.
In the US, Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm is regarded as typical business dayhours. At the same time, Monday to Friday are also considered working days, but work can continue on Saturday and Sunday. In this case, it is not considered a business day. So in a sense you conduct your business from Monday to Friday.
Therefore, a business day is referred to as the typical hours in a day when the business is conducting normal operations.
The majority of countries are operational from Monday to Friday, and 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
During business days, most consumers tend to complete all their financial transactions and conduct other activities like delivering goods and services.
This is not always the case when conducting international business transactions. Some countries have different business weeks, and you need to follow their schedule.
Although most countries follow the 40 hours per week from Monday to Friday, there is a variance when doing international business. As such, you need to verify the days of the business week in the country where you are doing business.
In the Middle East, the traditional workweek is from Sunday to Thursday, however this is changing with the United Arab Emirates UAE changing to Monday-Friday on January 1st 2022.
While in countries like Mexico, India, and Colombia, the workweek is from Monday through Saturday.
It is important to know the right business day for the company because it is commonly used to convey when something needs to get delivered or submitted.
For example, emails that need to be delivered within three business days. It can also make a huge difference in the delivery of packages and freight. It may not arrive on time if you sent it without knowing your business days.
Is Saturday a Business Day?
In most countries, Saturday is not considered a business day. The reason behind this is the influence of the banking sector on the economy.
In the United States, the Federal Reserve is not open on Saturdays, the New York Federal Reserve confirms this on its website. So for this reason, banks cannot perform any transactions or activities with the Federal Reserve.
It affects the bank’s ability to perform transactions in the entire system. Since the banks cannot conduct their highest level transactions with the Federal Reserve on Saturdays, it is considered a non-business day.
Their branches may be open on Saturdays, so it is a working day, but it is not a “true” business day since the majority of their transactions cannot be conducted. These transactions may include checking to clear or check deposits which will have to wait until Monday.
For this reason, Saturday is not a business day for banks.
When Saturdays Become a Business Day
An exception is for businesses that are operating in a 24/7 format. For these businesses, the employees are working on Saturdays and Sundays and so they are also working days.
Some operations carried out by these companies might be customer support, inquiries, and minor transactions. In retail, this is often their official business operation.
Business Days for Shipping
A business day is counted from Monday to Friday. In shipping, business days are official office working days. These are the days when employees come to the offices. Employers and employees officially work, meet deadlines, and achieve the goals of the organization. Similarly, the shipping industry also follows these business days to deliver packages.
However, business days are different from one region to another. And shipments follow the same depending on the region, to get the items shipped.
What do Business Days Mean in Shipping?
USPS
USPS offers a range of services, fees and delivery options. Saturday is not considered a business day for USPS, but it is considered a working day.
UPS for example offers Saturday delivery for time-sensitive packages and documents. The USPS also delivers mail on Saturdays. But they do not process newly mailed packages and documents on Saturdays.
Although post offices are closed on Saturdays, the mailcarriers are working on Saturdays and deliver the mail.
For them, Saturday is considered a working day. However, not all businesses consider Saturday as a working day.
It does not count when estimating shipping time. Even some online businesses will not ship on Saturdays and will wait until Monday to process and ship orders.
Depending on the shipping service you choose, USPS may take 1 to 3 business days to ship the products.
FedEx
Normally FedEx Ground delivers in one to seven business days. Delivery times to the mainland United States are one to five days and three to seven days to Alaska and Hawaii.
Their freight services bring one to three business days to most parts of the US, and the Night services will bring the shipment on the next business day.
FedEx deliver 7 days a week on their regular residential ground service, and they claim to be able to deliver to 95% of USA population on Sundays.
UPS
UPS offers Saturday delivery and pick up , however this is not standard and you must use a special Saturday delivery sticker.
They offer residential but not commercial delivery on Sundays through their SurePost service. They do not offer pick up services for residential or commercial on Sunday.
The Irish UPS website outlines that "Business days are defined as Monday through Friday, with the exception of holidays observed by UPS."
Frequently Asked Questions About Saturdays as Business Day
How Long is 5 Business Days?
To count five business days today, in general you need to add five consecutive business days starting today and skipping weekends and national holidays.
For example: if it ships on Thursday, then it will arrive on the following Wednesday(despatched Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday and be delivered on Wednesday).
Is Saturday considered a business day for shipping?
No. In general the shipping industry does not consider Saturday a business day. Hence, Monday to Friday are considered business days.
However, if the day is a Friday, the next business day will be Monday because Saturdays and Sundays are weekends and are not considered business days.
However it is best to consult the services offered by each individual shipping company to ensure you select the best service.
Does 2-day shipping include weekends?
In eCommerce, providing two-day shipping is common for merchants to ensure that online orders are delivered to end buyers with quick exchanges.
The items will be received two business days after shipping, so as we have shown in general this excludes weekends.
What days will it be for 5 business days?
Five business days means Monday to Friday except for Saturday and Sunday.
What do 3 to 5 business days mean?
Three business days mean any of the 3 days from Monday to Friday. On the other hand, five business days means Monday to Friday and if there is a weekend then it will take 7 calendar days to complete the 5 business days.
Conclusion
In the United States, Saturdays are not considered business days. Although many companies, stores, restaurants, and services operate on Saturdays since banks and many service industries do not operate on this day. It is considered an extra working day but not a business day.
When considering shipping it is best to check the terms and conditions offered by each individual service.
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