NPV Calculator

Net Present Value
Net Present Value Calculator
Net Present Value Calculator

Use this NPV calculator to evaluate regular or irregular cash flows for investment suitability.

  • Uses actual dates for maximum accuracy
  • Easy bulk data entry
  • Print cash flows and results

Why use a net present value calculator? Why is a NPV calculation useful?

Unlike the IRR or MIRR calculations that express results in percentage terms, the NVP calculation reveals its results in dollar terms. A dollar amount can be very beneficial.

  • If the result is positive, then the investment will generate more than your desired rate-of-return. In such cases, you can consider investing.
  • The net present value also has another use. If you are negotiating an investment, the NPV will tell you how much you can adjust your initial investment amount and still achieve your desired rate of return. More below

Idx#DateAmount#DateAmount
When in the last row, use the down arrow to add a row.
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$ : mm/dd/yyyy

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What is net present value?

In finance jargon, the net present value is the combined present value of both the investment cash flow and the return or withdrawal cash flow. To calculate the net present value, the user must enter a "Discount Rate." The "Discount Rate" is simply your desired rate of return (ROR).

Using the NPV Calculator

In addition to the projected cash flow, the user sets five values.

  • Initial Investment (-): The first amount invested. You enter money invested as a negative number. (You are writing a check.)
  • Discount Rate: The rate-of-return you want to earn on your investment.
  • Initial Investment Date: The start date.
  • First Cash Flow Date: The dates in the cash flow grid start from this date.
  • Cash Flow Frequency: Use cash flow frequency to initial set the dates in the cash flow grid. You may change as many dates as you want when you enter the cash flows.

You must enter at least one negative value and one positive value (investment return); otherwise, the NPV calculator cannot calculate a result.

How is NPV useful?

As I've mentioned, you can use the NPV calculation to determine if you should invest. All other things being equal, the larger the result, the better the investment. You can use the result to evaluate a single investment, or you can use it to compare investments.

But what if you are negotiating an investment?

Wouldn't it be handy to have a tool to that tells you by how much you can raise your bid and still meet your investment objective?

The NPV calculation is that tool.

The NPV is the calculation investors use to learn if they are paying too much for an investment (or if they could pay more) relative to the rate of return they want to earn. If the net present value is negative, the initial investment is too high for the investor to meet their goal ROR. If the NPV is positive, the investor can pay that amount more for the investment, and they'll still earn what they want to make.

Here's an example....

Sharon invests in already issued mortgages. She can buy a mortgage for $210,000 that has 200 remaining monthly payments of $1,682.77 each. The next payment is due on Oct. 1. Sharon wants to earn 6% on her investments.

Is this a good deal for Sharon?

Follow these steps.

  1. Click "Reset" to clear entries in the cash flow table.
  2. Enter -210,000.00 for the "Initial Investment."
  3. Enter Sharon's personal "Discount Rate" i.e. 6% — the ROR she wants to earn on her investments.
  4. Set "Initial Investment Date." In this case, that's the date Sharon plans to purchase the mortgage. Use Sept. 15 if you are following along.
  5. Set "First Cash Flow Date" to Oct. 1.
  6. Set "Cash Flow Frequency" to monthly.
  7. Click on "Add Series." Create 200 monthly entries of $1,682.77 starting on Oct. 1.
  8. Click "Calc":
    • Net Present Value = $5,248.61
    • Internal Rate of Return = 6.376%

Since the IRR equals 6.4%, Sharon will earn more than the 6% she desires.

But what if there is a competing bid for the mortgage?

Can Sharon pay more than $210,000?

Yes! She can pay as much as $5,248.61 more and still earn a rate-of-return of 6.0%.

How does she know this?

What's the proof?

Let's see for ourselves. Change the "Initial Investment" to $-215,248.61 ($210,000.00 plus the NPV result from above) and click "Calc" again. Now we have:

  • NPV = $0.00
  • IRR = 6.0%

Sharon now knows how much more she can invest if needed and still achieve her goal of a 6.0% return.

Note: When the NPV is negative, that is the amount the investor must decrease their initial investment by to make their desired ROR.

Calendar Tip: When using the calendar, click on the month at the top to list the months, then, if needed, click on the year at the top to list years. Click to select a year, select a month and select a day. Naturally, you can scroll through the months and days too. Or you can click on "Today" to quickly select the current date.

If you prefer not using a calendar, single click on a date or use the [Tab] key (or [Shift][Tab]) to select a date. Then, as mentioned, type 8 digits only - no need to type the date part separators. Also, because the date is selected, you do not need to clear the prior date before typing. If your selected date format equals mm/dd/yyyy, then for Mar. 1, 2024, type 01012024.

An NPV calculator is a valuable tool for investors and businesses considering undertaking a project. Let us know how you use this calculator in the comments below. Many of us will be interested in knowing.

12 Comments on “Net Present Value Calculator”

Join the conversation. Tell me what you think.
  • Anthony Hosseini says:

    Hello Karl:

    I am using the example above but the IRR and NPV arent turning out to be the result which is disclosed. When I add calculator it is asking for numbers? and end series? Using the example above, what are the numbers I need to input?

    Thank you,

    Anthony

    • This calculator is date sensitive, and you’ll notice that I did not specify a year in the example. The point of the example is to show users how to use the calculator and not to stress on the actual number.

      But, you make a good point, I should have included the years in the text.

      If you want to match the result of the example exactly, then please set the first date to Sept. 15, 2017, and the 2nd date to Oct. 1, 2017.

      You may wonder why this make a difference? The answer is simple, it’s due to when a leap year falls relative to the start date.

  • Matthew Dancik says:

    I was looking for help for the following situation.

    I have a land contract I am collecting on. To keep number simple, I’ll round them up.

    I paid $37,000 in July of 2016, and collected my first payment in August of 2016. All payments, including late fees, will be $55,000 in total after 43 payments ending February of this year – 2020.

    All payments made have been intermittent. Missed months, varying amounts, etc.

    I would like to know how to enter in specific monthly payments on specific dates and amounts, and determine the yield/ROI. SOLELY based on my investment (outflow) against the payments collected during the 43 month period.

    The NPV calculator also factors back in the return of the invested capital – which is not what is happening in this case. Yes, invested capital is essentially returned in the payments, but not separately. Need help please.

    • Please use this calculator. Scroll down the page for tutorials. Everyone should see tutorial #1 for an overview. And for your case, tracking payments, I think you’ll want to review tutorial #25.

      For calculating the ROI on the cash flow, see under the "Setting" menu the "Analytics" options.

      Once you’ve tried it, if you have questions, just ask.

  • Thomas Graneau says:

    Dear Karl, I attempted to embed the HTML code of the loan calculator on my site as a test, but it wasn’t functioning properly. The calculator was visible, but part of the functions were missing. Can you help with this issue?

    • This NPV calculator you tried to put on your site? Or one of the WordPress plugins? This calculator is not designed to run on any domain other than this domain. I would be pretty upset if website owners could put these calculators on their sites!

  • This is a brilliant idea, but seriously clunky in use. I cannot edit data entry fields, I can only retype them. The ‘Add Series feature which is really useful adds duplicate entries, though that doesn’t affect the results. But the most brilliant feature – the copy/paste function – is too flawed to be useful! I get “aN/aN/NaN” for the cashflow dates in the new web page, and pressing Calc gives me an error message. This is with both Firefox and Chrome on a Macbook.

    • Thanks for your comments.

      A. Correct, no input field for any calculator can be edited. That’s by design. The inputs on this site work as an electronic calculator. Numbers, as type, flow in from the right. A user can tab from field (input) to field. The contents of the field will be highlighted. A user just starts to type, and they only have to type numbers. Just typing auto clears the prior value. Moving a cursor or highlighting an individual number to edit is generally more clunky and slower than just retyping the number. However, if you want to edit, use the backspace key and clear the digits and type again. (Instructions should have shown on the screen if you had typed the delete key for example.)

      B. The Add Series does not create duplicates (unless I’ve missed a bug). It creates the series the user asks for. Now, if a user asks for a series from Jan 15 to Dec 15, and there’s an existing entry for Aug 15, then the user will end up with 2 entries for Aug 15. But the Add Series did not create 2 Aug 15 entries.

      C. The calculator does not have a copy/paste feature. If you mean your Mac’s copy/paste feature, that makes sense that it does not work. The calculator only expects users to type numbers only and the calculator takes care of formatting the numbers with thousands separators. There is a workaround. Type the number into a text editor with no formatting and copy from there, then you can paste the value into the calculator and the number will be autoformatted. Not ideal, but it does work. But rather than copy/paste, that’s why the add series was added as a feature. (NaN means “Not a Number”)

      • Thanks for the reply! A&B are no problem really. But in C I mean the copy/paste feature for the entire calculation (e.g. to save or send to others.) I managed to get it to work by replacing every instance of %2520 in the URL with / .

        • Now I understand about the copy/paste. Thank you for reporting that problem.

          If you still need to share IRR and NPV calculations, then please try this calculator. The IRR calculator has a file save feature. Users can save the inputs much like saving a word processing document. Of course, you can share the saved file.

          • You have some great tools on your site – thank you. I hope you manage to fix the URL generator on the other calculator – it makes it phenomenally easy to share calculations quickly on discussion forums, etc.

          • Thank you, Tom.

            The NPV calculator should be fixed.

            What happened was this. The site is built using a content manager called WordPress. I upgraded to a new version of WP at the end of January. WP uses a code library that changed which broke the URL feature that I had not been aware of.

            Thank you for taking the time to report the bug.

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