RATE in Collabora Office: Solve a Periodic Rate and Verify the Residual

=RATE(NPer; Pmt; PV [; FV [; Type [; Guess]]])

NPer is the number of periods, Pmt the constant periodic payment and PV the opening present value. Optional FV is the terminal value, Type payment timing, and Guess an initial estimate for the iterative calculation. The Collabora reference explicitly identifies Guess as an iterative starting estimate.

This guide supplies all six arguments. Type=0 uses end-of-period payments. Guess is a periodic rate, just like the result; it is not an annual rate unless the periods are years. A guess helps a numerical solver start and does not establish that the returned rate is economically meaningful or unique.

Use a consistent cash-flow viewpoint: initial positive receipts and later negative payments in the ordinary repayment examples.

Enter 10% in B2, 3 in B3 and 1000 in B4. In B5 enter =PMT(B2;B3;B4;0;0) and retain its unrounded value. Then use =RATE(B3;B5;B4;0;0;B2) in B7.

The independent target is 10%. This constructed control is useful after an import because the generating rate is known. It does not establish solver behavior for every unusual cash-flow sequence or starting guess.

The official RATE example displays a negative rate while its prose drops the sign. Preserve the sign of your own result and verify its equation rather than interpreting every negative result as a positive rate.

For end-of-period payments and a nonzero rate r, the cash-flow equation is:

PV*(1+r)^NPer + Pmt*((1+r)^NPer-1)/r + FV = 0

Substitute 1000, three periods, the unrounded PMT value and r=10%. The residual has independent target zero. A small floating-point residual should be judged relative to the size of the cash flows, not interpreted as an extra required payment.

For r=0, use the limiting equation PV+Pmt*NPer+FV=0 rather than dividing by zero. Keeping that separate check makes a worksheet audit robust around a zero-rate solution.

A no-payment model with an initial receipt of 1000 and terminal outflow of approximately 1126.825030132 after twelve periods is:

=RATE(12;0;1000;-1126.825030132;0;1%)

Its independent target is 1% per period. If the periods are months, multiplying by twelve gives a 12% nominal annual rate, while (1+1%)^12-1 gives approximately 12.682503013% effective annual growth.

Those labels represent different quantities. A bare “annual rate” heading can conceal the distinction. The no-payment example also isolates the growth calculation from an annuity payment stream.

Format the result as a percentage with enough decimals for inspection. Then use the full stored rate in FV or in an explicit balance recurrence. Replacing 1.0049% with a manually entered 1.00% can leave a material residual over many periods.

If a solver does not converge or gives an unexpected rate, examine the signs and units first. Trying another reasonable Guess is a diagnostic step; accepting whichever result looks pleasant is not validation. Unusual cash-flow structures may have no suitable solution or more than one mathematical root.

Use positive NPer and a meaningful set of opposing cash flows for the ordinary examples. A zero-rate control is four payments of −250 against PV=1000 and FV=0; its independent equation balances at r=0.

The reviewed help does not establish exact convergence tolerances, iteration limits or native error codes. This guide does not invent them. No target-application solver execution occurred, and the example outputs are independent equation checks.

Collabora Office 26.04 desktop help documents RATE. 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.

• Collabora Office 26.04: RATE.
• Editorial testing standards.

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.