future value and gross profit.

[Lady]

Hello,
I have two classwork problems where I have to use excel to figure future
value and gross profit. When I use the FV function, it asks for "values" that
i don't have. When I type in gross profit, I get a lot of functions that
don't apply. Please help!! I am new to excel and all I need is the formulas
to do this. I have to calculate the future value of $5000 if money is
compounded yearly at 10% for 30 years. I also need to calculate the gross
profit of a company with a revenue of $400,000 and expenses of $415,000.
Also, if anyone can give me a website that shows examples of how this is
supposed to look, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Fred Smith]

What version of Excel are you using? In mine, when I type in =fv( I get a popup
which gives me the syntax for the function. This is a lot simpler than posting
to a newsgroup.

Your FV function is:

=fv(10%,30,0,5000)
If you want more information, check out Help.

Regarding gross profit, you don't have enough information to calculate it. Gross
profit is Sales less Cost of Sales. Net profit is Gross Profit less expenses.

If this is the information they have given you, I suspect they want the
answer -15,000 (note the negative sign), but you should point out they are not
using the correct term.

By the way, if you have to ask these basic questions of a newsgroup, you're
either being ripped off by your school because they aren't providing basic
information you need, or you're in way over your head.

 

[Lady]

I am using Excel XP. When I type fv, I get a popup menu that has rate (10%),
Nper (360 payments), Pmt (no payment given), PV ($5,000.00), Type (unknown as
to when payment to be made). After doing the problem with the formula you
gave, the answer I come up with is
$87,247,011,344,432,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.00!!!! I know HOW to figure
the problem out on paper by using a table. My question is HOW to put this in
a formula on Excel. My class is Business Math, not computers. For some
strange reason, my math teacher wants this assignment done on Excel instead
of just turning it in on paper. I have the program on my home computer but
never bothered to learn how to use it until now.
As far as gross profit, I just wanted a formula that can show that. I had a
problem where I used AVERAGE and was able to display the formula. I want to
be able to do that. When I use a simple formula with the = sign, that
function under Tools (formula auditing) does not show the breakdown, as in
AVERAGE.

 

[Fred Smith]

Your problem is the period for your rate and payments do not match. Your rate is
annual, but your periods are months. You need to either enter 30 payments, or
10%/12 as the interest rate. This has nothing to do with Excel, and everything
to do with ensuring you are feeding FV the proper data, which should have been
made clear in your class.

Calculating gross profit is simple subtraction. Excel follows the rules of
algebra in that you simply enter =x-y. It's got nothing to do with Average.