How to Create a Financial Calculator in Microsoft Excel: Step-by-Step Guide

Step-by-step instructions for building your own financial calculator in Excel

Reviewed by Alex Kwan

Last Updated: November 3, 2023

A financial calculator can be expensive for students. It is not intuitive to use and unless they become investment bankers or Realtors, most students will never use it after finishing the financial course. Fortunately, it is very easy to create a financial calculator for free if you have Excel on your computer. An Excel calculator can do much more than a dedicated financial calculator.

Things You Should Know

You should already understand future value, present value, rate, number of periods, and payment parameters.
Create your financial calculator by using built-in Excel financial functions for each parameter.
Once you've made a calculator for each parameter, you've completed your Excel financial calculator.

Steps

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1
Remember the 5 common finance parameters. It is assumed that you already have some knowledge of the 5 parameters often used in finance: FV (future value), PV (present value), Rate, Nper (number of periods) and PMT (payment). The function of this calculator is, given any 4 of these parameters, to calculate the 5th parameter.
- You also may need to include type. In Excel, type is either 0 or 1. The type is 0 if payments are due at the beginning of the period. The type is 1 if payments are due at the end of the period.
Once you open Excel, you will have a blank spreadsheet on hand ready to create your financial calculator.

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Insert some sample values to help create your formulas.
Click Insert, then Function (or f_x on the task bar) to open Insert Function window. In the left column, select "Financial". This will give you all the functions in financial calculation.
5
Double-click FV. A Function Arguments window will open. Fill in the field numbers according to how you labeled them.
- While you're in this window, you can click the ? button for help and read the details of how this Excel function works.
If you fill in the value of Rate, Nper, PMT, and PV, Field B17 will show the FV.
Instead of solving for FV, you will want to solve for PV, Rate, Nper, and PMT.

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Question

How can I learn about all financial functions in Excel?

Community Answer

Do a search for Excel financial calculators. Many have been created that you can download the file and then open it. If it isn't locked, you can copy the formulas and paste them in your own calculator.

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How do I do a division calculation in Excel?

Community Answer

Type in the cell in which you want the answer the following: = (cell ref or number) / (cell ref or number) and hit enter. Cell ref is the cell coordinates of a number you want to be divided or simply type in the number. In this formula, you do not need ().

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Tips

You can also make Excel calculators to make financial calculations in the case of an uneven payment. The sample calculator has examples of some additional functions. Your professor may be surprised at how fast you can make these calculations.

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You may want to protect the fields have has formulas built in so that you do not accidentally delete the formulas. To protect a field, click in that cell, then right click and choose Format Cells. In the Protection tab, check Locked.

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Enter money paid out, like loan payments, in negative numbers. Enter money taken in, like interest dividends, in positive numbers.

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Warnings

When using this calculator, be sure your units are consistent. That is, if you are using periods in months, make sure that you are using a monthly interest rate, too. To get monthly interest rate, divide the yearly interest rate by 12.

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You may not have access to Excel during a test or quiz. If you are taking a class, find out ahead of time if you will need a financial calculator for tests and see if you can borrow one from a friend. Learn how to use it in advance.

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