### IRR

Basic and Crystal syntax.

##### Overloads

- IRR (values)
- IRR (values, guess)

##### Arguments

- values is a Number or Currency type array that specifies cash flow values. The array must contain at least one negative value (a payment) and one positive value (a receipt). The cash flows must occur at regular intervals such as monthly or yearly.
- guess is an optional Number value that is estimated to be returned by IRR. If omitted, guess is 0.1 (10 percent).

##### Returns

Number value

##### Action

IRR returns a Number specifying the internal rate of return for a series of periodic cash flows (payments and receipts).

##### Example

The following example is applicable to both Basic and Crystal syntax:

Suppose that you can choose one of two offers: $20,000 now or guaranteed payments of $5,000 after 1 year, $10,000 after 2 years and $15,000 after 3 years. What is the better offer? One way to quantify this is to calculate the internal rate of return. If you take the second offer, you can't take the first so that is like experiencing an initial payment of $20,000 followed by the receipts:

Rem Basic syntax
formula = IRR (Array(-20000, 5000, 10000, 15000))
//Crystal syntax
IRR ([-20000, 5000, 10000, 15000])

Returns 0.194 (rounded to 3 decimals) or 19.4 percent interest. So all other things being equal, if you think that 19.4 percent is a good rate of return, you would prefer the second offer.

##### Comments

- This function is designed to work like the Visual Basic function of the same name.
- The NPV and IRR functions are related since NPV (IRR (values), values) = 0. That is, the internal rate of return of a sequence of cash flows is the interest rate for which that sequence of cash flows has a net present value of 0.
- There is no direct formula for the IRR function and so Seagate Crystal Reports calculates the value by iteration. The process depends on the initial guess for the internal rate of return. If the program reports an error, try changing the value of the guess argument to be closer to what you expect the internal rate of return should be.

Seagate Software, Inc. http://www.seagatesoftware.com Please send comments to: techpubs@seagatesoftware.com