Of the hundreds of functions in the Business Functions library, the following are, from our experience, the most popular.
- In the Date and Time Calculations category, DpY (date plus years) and DpM (date plus months) are essential for setting up any schedule of dates or linking event times from one part of a model to another.
- In the Constant Rate Projections category, Con is the basic function for an annual rate that has a start and an end date.
- In the Stepped Rate Projections category, FStep is very useful in any stepped rate situation, using the more popular FromDates method of specifying rates and having a very simple variable list. Not far behind it in popularity, and quite handy in Real Estate projections, is TStep, where the ToDates method is used.
- Also in this category is AnnGrow, of general application in any situation of growing costs.
- In the Discrete Amount Projections category MkPmts is of general use in any list of payments and dates. With DpY/DpM, FStep, AnnGrow, and MkPmts you can do a powerful forecast or budget which will have variable timebase capability (could be run on quarterly or annual basis), ability to model recessions (change in growth rates) and be very fast.
- In the Distributed Amount Projections category, UniSpread is the simplest of the time spread functions, spread an amount uniformly between a start and an end date. Going on from there SCurve is a long-time steady performer for spreading capital costs that peak somewhere in the middle of their time duration.
- In the Instantaneous Level Projections category, Fcst is the simple standard function for reading a value off an even spaced forecast of values against time (eg price forecasts).
- In the Range Operations category, SumCat is a simple and effective way of breaking a total down into different categories. Excels SumIf function does a similar kind of job, but it is somehow a little less direct.
- Also in the Range Operations category, WeightAv is a very quick way of computing a weighted average.
- In the Time Value Of Money Analysis category, NPVM is essential for calculating the NPV where you have cash flow that occurs throughout the year rather than at year end.
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