1. General Topics Home
2. Introduction
   1. Getting Started
   2. Using The Help File
   3. Top Dozen Functions
   4. Golden Rules
   5. Excel 2007
3. Menu Options
   1. Go To
   2. Function Selector
   3. CalculateFull
   4. Calculate WorkSheet
   5. Trace Facility
   6. Quick Paste Example
   7. Tutorials
   8. Function Finder
   9. Examples
   10. Help
   11. Excel"s Function Wizard
   12. Access Internet
   13. Usage of Functions (Audit)
   14. Uninstall
4. Business Functions Date Arithmetic
   1. Time Periods
   2. Inclusive and Exclusive Dates
   3. Using Daycount
   4. Examples of DayCount
   5. Annual Date Sequences
   6. ProjMode and Inclusive Dates
   7. Date Rolling Convention
5. Techniques
   1. Rate Projections Functions Walkthrough
   2. Accruals and Cash
   3. Repeating Formulae
   4. Range Names and References
   5. Optional Parameters
   6. Using PmtsPerYear
   7. Modelling Seasonality
   8. Calculating Interest
   9. Using Business Functions in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)
   10. Array Functions
   11. Volatility
   12. Annual Equivalent Rates
   13. Array Function
   14. Auto Multi Functions
   15. Variable Plurality
   16. GoalSeek
6. Worked Examples
   1. Introduction To the Worked Examples
   2. Daycount
   3. General Projections
   4. Business Plans
   5. Cashbasis And Periods
   6. Using Timebases
   7. Using Dates
7. How to ...
   1. How To Generate a time scale for a structured financing
   2. How To Project Rents off a Rental Forecast
   3. How To Run a model on different time bases
   4. How To Isolate The Cause of a Errors in Cells using Trace
8. Utilities - Information
   1. Introduction to the Utilities
   2. Audit
   3. Synchronized Range Insert/Delete
   4. Database Edit
   5. Insert Macro Button
   6. Link Analyser
   7. Range Describer
   8. PrintScript (beta)
   9. Create Local Range Name
9. Utilities - Formatting
   1. Number Formats
   2. Apply BF"s Color Palette
   3. Bullets
   4. Color Cells
   5. Conditional Formats
10. Utilities - Validating
    1. Validation DropDowms
    2. Validation Standards
11. Utilities - Operations
    1. Select Excel Function
    2. Array Function Tools
    3. Sort Sheets
    4. Range Value
    5. Named Range Manager
    6. Enforce WorkBook Settings
    7. Monte-Carlo
    8. TimeChart
12. Customising Business Functions
    1. The ".ini" file
13. Resources On The Web
    1. Forum
    2. Online Help
    3. Templates
14. Appendix 1
    1. Conversion of Input Strings to Values
    2. List of Holidays
    3. Acknowledgements and Trademarks
    4. Published Editions Changes in Behaviour
    5. Range Handling And Constraints
    6. Dates in Excel and Business Functions
    7. Old Composite DayCount Format
    8. DayCount in Excels"s Functions
15. Appendix 2 Key Formulae
    1. NPV of Annual To Periodic CashFlows - CorrectionM
    2. Interest - Simple, Annual, Continous and Discount Factors
16. Appendix 3 New and Retired Functions
    1. New Functions
    2. Obsolete Functions
    3. Discontinued Functions
    4. Deprecated Functions

How To Generate a time scale for a structured financing

• The first thing you need to do for a structured financing is generate the timebase for the financing. It"s best to do this by formulae, rather than by just typing, because then you might be able to re-use the model for other financings.
  
• There are a couple of function families, called the Date Increment and Business Days families, that have functions useful for this purpose.
  
• There are simple ones, like DpM(TheDate, Months) which simply increment a date by a period of time, perfectly adequate for setting up a budget or cash flow timescale.
  
• One of the most powerful and flexible functions is NextDateSeqBD(TheDate, AnnDateSeq, [SpecificDates], [BusDaySwitch]). This is really tailor made for setting up the timebases of finance leases, securitisations, loans, etc. You can set the basic annual date sequence in AnnDateSeq and then put an initial date into a cell. Thereafter, refer to the preceding cell will cause the function to pick off the next date in the sequence. Using SpecificDates enables you to insert special "one-off" dates into the timescale. Finally BusDaySwitch enables you to roll forward to the next working day - you can even stipulate public holidays such as the NYSE or the UK. Refer to the documentation for the function and its similar siblings for more detail.