FV in Collabora Office: Project a Balance With Consistent Cash-Flow Signs
Calculate a Collabora future value with explicit payment timing, separate opening capital from contributions, and independently audit the balance.
Verification status: See the evidence and test scope described in this guide. How formula examples are checked
Quick answer: =FV(10%;3;-100;-1000;0) has expected result 1662. It models an initial outflow of 1000 and three end-of-period contributions of 100, growing at 10% per period.
Syntax and arguments
=FV(Rate; NPer; Pmt [; PV [; Type]])
Rate is the interest rate for one period, NPer the number of periods, and Pmt the constant payment per period. PV is optional opening present value. Type identifies payment timing: these examples explicitly use zero for end-of-period payments and one for beginning-of-period payments. PV and Type are supplied explicitly throughout to avoid an omitted-argument assumption.
Cash received and cash paid must have opposite signs from the same viewpoint. For the saver here, opening capital and contributions are negative outflows; the resulting future balance is positive. Reversing every cash-flow sign reverses the result without changing its magnitude.
The model assumes a constant rate and equal periodic payments. It does not represent irregular dates, fees, changing rates or an investment forecast. The rate is a hypothetical input.
Example 1: verify the accumulation one period at a time
Enter 10%, 3, −100, −1000, 0 in B2:B6, labeled Rate, Periods, Payment, Present value and Type. Enter =FV(B2;B3;B4;B5;B6) in B8.
Independently start with a positive account balance of 1000. Grow it by 10%, then add the contribution of 100 at each period end. The balances are 1200, 1420, 1662. This recurrence checks both the interest timing and the final number without using FV again.
The opening 1000 grows to 1331. The contributions grow to 331, consisting of 100×1.1² + 100×1.1 + 100. Their sum is 1662. The last contribution earns no interest inside the modeled horizon because it arrives at its end.
Example 2: move contributions to the beginning
=FV(10%;3;-100;-1000;1) has expected result 1695.1. Each contribution now earns interest for one additional period. The contribution component becomes 331×1.1 = 364.1, while the opening capital still grows to 1331.
The difference, 33.1, comes solely from timing. Do not change NPer to four merely because the first payment moves earlier. There are still three periods and three payments in this annuity-due model.
Advanced application: audit annual and monthly assumptions
For a nominal annual rate of 12% with monthly compounding, use periodic Rate=12%/12 and NPer=12 for one year. A no-contribution control is =FV(12%/12;12;0;-1000;0), expected 1126.825030132.
A 12% effective annual rate is a different input convention. Its equivalent monthly rate is (1+12%)^(1/12)-1; using that rate for twelve periods grows 1000 to 1120. Dividing an effective annual rate by twelve changes the model.
Label the rate convention beside the cell rather than hiding it in a formula. A percentage format alone does not say whether the rate is annual, monthly, nominal or effective.
Boundaries and troubleshooting
At zero rate, the independent target for =FV(0;3;-100;-1000;0) is 1300, the starting contribution plus three payments. This is a mathematical control, not a native boundary capture.
If your result is negative, check the cash-flow perspective before adding ABS. The official FV example uses positive opening value and positive payments and therefore displays a negative future value. Hiding signs can conceal an inconsistent model.
The reviewed help notes that optional arguments cannot simply be omitted in the middle when a later argument is supplied. Use an explicit zero PV when you want to specify Type without opening capital.
Use actual numeric cells, align Rate and NPer units, and test the intended deployment before depending on undocumented invalid-input error codes. Native Collabora error behavior was not executed here.
Availability and verification
Collabora Office 26.04 desktop help documents FV. The official snapshot was retrieved on 2026-10-13 and hash-verified for this guide on October 15, 2026. Online/mobile support is not inferred from this desktop documentation.
First introduced release and last functioning version are unknown. No native Collabora execution was performed. Expected outputs are independent arithmetic or equation controls, not captured application results. Exact native error behavior, additional versions and extreme numerical cases remain unverified.
References
Formulas use English function names and semicolon separators. The help advises supplying earlier optional arguments when a later optional argument is needed; the worked formulas use explicit values.