XIRR and XNPV dated cash flow calculator

Dates carry economic information

An annual IRR treats its observations as equally spaced periods. Dated cash flows instead attach a year fraction to every payment or receipt. A receipt after ninety days and the same receipt after a full year therefore imply different annualized rates even when the undiscounted cash gain is identical.

This page counts actual elapsed calendar days but divides by a fixed 365-day year. Leap days count as days; they do not change the denominator. Amounts on the same date are combined before evaluating their chronological signs.

The Rolling return and observed drawdown calculator analyses an adjusted price series without personal deposits and withdrawals. Use it for observed index behaviour, while this page keeps the investor’s actual cash-flow dates. The Portfolio time weighted subperiod return calculator answers a different performance question by linking flow-separated valuation periods rather than weighting return by dated cash amounts.

Use a complete and consistent cash-flow boundary

Enter cash leaving the investor as negative and cash received as positive. If an investment is still held, an appropriate terminal value can be entered as a final positive flow. Do not also count distributions already retained inside that terminal figure.

This model requires all net outflows to precede all net inflows. That conventional sequence gives a unique rate when bracketed. Alternating signs can produce multiple rates, so those cases are rejected rather than selecting whichever root happens to be near an arbitrary guess.

Keep return and value questions separate

XIRR finds a rate that balances the entered history. XNPV asks a different question: what that history is worth at the discount rate you choose. A positive XNPV does not guarantee a future return, and the discount rate is an input assumption rather than a market quote.

Move the receipt date while keeping its amount fixed. The cash total does not change, but the annualized XIRR changes because the investment was tied up for a different duration. Use this comparison to understand timing rather than treating annualized short holding periods as repeatable forecasts.

Work through the example

A 100,000 investment on 1 January 2025 and a 110,000 receipt exactly 365 days later give a 10 percent annual XIRR. At an 8 percent discount rate their net present value is about 1,851.85.

Use the worked table to trace where each input enters. Then change one assumption and calculate again, leaving the others fixed. A comparison is easier to interpret when the change has one identifiable cause rather than a different set of measurements, dates and rates all at once.

What this model does not establish

Actual/365 conventional cash flows only, at most 200 rows and a 36,600-day span. No multiple-root search, taxes, fees, automatic terminal valuation or future performance guarantee.

Keep the input assumptions with any exported result. Illustrative values do not become observations merely because the output is precise. For a real purchase, financial reconciliation or technical decision, check the underlying records and applicable requirements before treating this scenario as a final answer.