Many functions in the projections part of the library
have two modes of operation set by the ProjMode variable - accruals and
cash, e.g. Con.
The difference is that whilst in accruals mode
the function calculates how a rate of payment
relates to a certain time period, in cash mode the
function goes a stage further and decides how much of the
payment is actually occurs during the time
period.
- In Accruals mode functions
therefore calculate how much of a payment period
(usually a year) is contained within the time period
you specify. This might be how much of a year, how many
quarters, how many months etc. The daycount method, for
specifying how to calculate the difference between two
dates, is described by two optional variables DayCount and Periods. For more information
see Using Daycount and Examples of DayCount.
- In Cash mode functions
calculate how much of the payment actually
occurs in the time period. To determine this,
the function needs either an standard option for
quarterly, monthly payments etc, or, because such
standard options may be restrictive, you can specify
your own timing of quarters in Periods. For more information
see Using Daycount and Examples of DayCount.
Recommendations
- If you are using a function in
accruals mode, then letting the function use the
default DayCount will nearly
always result in highly accurate results, and there is
often no need to specify DayCount and Periods.
- If you are using a function in
cash mode, specify your own annual sequence
using a series of dates that you have somewhere in your
spreadsheet. You can use the default (quarterly
in advance) by omitting Periods altogether, but you will
be more in control by specifying your own dates. You
can also use the preset options for Periods and DayCount (see Using Daycount).
- For a large model, it is best to
have at least two named global variables in the
worksheet to use for DayCount and Periods. For more information
and our recommendations on named variables, see Range Names and References
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