The NPV function calculates the net present value for a series of positive and negative transactions with a constant interest rate.
The net present value of an investment enables you to know how much a future investment is worth today. You could use the NPV function to assess whether an investment is worthwhile while accounting for depreciation.
NPV(Discount rate, Cash flow, Dates, Transactions)
Arguments
| Argument | Data type | Description |
| Discount rate (required) | Number | The discount rate used to calculate net present value. This argument uses percentage format, so 0.1 is equivalent to 10%. |
| Cash flow (required) | Number | A series of positive and negative values that represent cash inflow and outflow. |
| Dates | Date | The date associated with each value of the Cash flow argument. This argument is optional, but if used, you must provide the Transactions argument also. |
| Transactions | List | A list of transactions. This argument is optional, but if used, the list must be a common dimension of the Cash flow and Dates argument. |
The NPV function returns a number.
Additional information
How NPV is calculated
NPV is the solution to this equation:
In this equation:
- N is the number of payments in and out over the time scale
- Pi is the payment in the ith period
- di is the number of days from the start of the first period
- Rate is the discount rate
Use NPV with the Users list
You can reference the Users list with the NPV function. However, you cannot reference specific users within the Users list as this is production data, which can change and make your formula invalid.
Excel equivalent
Examples
Example of NPV with timescale
This example uses two modules. The first module, Annual cash flow, contains Cash flow line item with a Time Scale of Year. The Cash flow line item contains both a positive and negative value.
| FY20 | FY21 | FY22 | |
| Cash flow | -100,000 | 0 | 130,000 |
The second module contains two line items and no other dimensions. One line item contains the Discount rate, and another line item contains a formula that uses NPV with the Discount rate and the Cash flow line item from the previous module. As the IRR function returns a single value, the result does not need a time dimension.
| Discount rate | 10% |
NPV of annual cash flow
| 7,438.02 |
Example of NPV with dates
In this example, two modules are used. One source module, Plant Transaction Data, is dimensioned by the Transactions and Plants lists. Transactions is on rows, and Plants is on pages, with Plant 1 selected.
The Plant Transaction Data module contains the values of transactions, dates of transactions, and a description for some transactions.
| Description | Cash flow | Date | |
| Transaction 01 | Land purchase | -100,000 | 1/1/2011 |
| Transaction 02 | Turbine purchase | -850,000 | 1/1/2012 |
| Transaction 03 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2013 |
| Transaction 04 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2014 |
| Transaction 05 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2015 |
| Transaction 06 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2016 |
| Transaction 07 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2017 |
| Transaction 08 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2018 |
| Transaction 09 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2019 |
| Transaction 10 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2020 |
| Transaction 11 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2021 |
| Transaction 12 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2022 |
| Transaction 13 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2023 |
| Transaction 14 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2024 |
| Transaction 15 | Energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2025 |
| Transaction 16 | Final energy generation revenue | 200,000 | 1/3/2026 |
| Total | 1,850,000 |
The second module uses the data from the Plant Transaction Data module with the NPV function to calculate the net present value for each plant. The column for Plant 1 contains the internal rate of return for data displayed in the Plant Transaction Data module.
| Plant 1 | Plant 2 | Plant 3 | Plant 4 | |
Net Present Value for Plant
| 445,464 | 325,849 | 194,035 | 86,659 |
