Reference > Functions reference > Financial functions > PV
 
PV
Purpose 
Returns the present value (PV) of a series of equal payments made at regular intervals, assuming a fixed interest rate per interval.
Format 
PV(payment;interestRate;periods)
Parameters 
payment - payment amount to be made per period. Type a negative number for money you pay and a positive number for money you receive.
interestRate - interest rate per period.
periods - number of periods (intervals between payments).
Data type returned 
number
Originated in 
FileMaker Pro 6.0 or earlier
Description 
Use this function to calculate PV.
Equation
Note  When interestRate is 0, this function returns the result of payment * periods.
Examples 
Your cousin borrowed $2,000 from you, offering to pay you back $500 a year for five years, for a total of $2,500 at the end of five years. If inflation was 5 percent annually, with the following entry you could find out what those payments are worth with the PV function.
PV(500;.05;5) returns 2164.73833531....
If you want the return value to return two decimal places, enclose the formula with the correct Round function: Round(Current Formula;2).
Related topics 
Functions reference (category list)
Functions reference (alphabetical list)
About formulas
About functions
Defining calculation fields
Using operators in formulas