SLN in Collabora Office: Build a Straight-Line Depreciation Schedule

=SLN(Cost; Salvage; Life)

Cost is the asset’s initial cost. Salvage is its value at the end of the depreciation period. Life is the number of periods across which the depreciable amount is allocated. All three arguments are required. The dedicated Collabora help describes a constant depreciation amount and gives a monthly example with a life measured in months.

The independent calculation is (Cost−Salvage)/Life. SLN has no argument identifying a particular period because its amount is the same in each period of the modeled life. It does not create a schedule, choose useful life, determine salvage, or decide which accounting or tax policy applies.

Use a common currency for Cost and Salvage. Life is a period count, not a calendar date. The result is currency per chosen period; its cell format does not automatically label whether those periods are years or months.

Enter 12000 in B2, 2000 in B3 and 5 in B4. Label A2:A4 Cost, Salvage and Life in years. In B6 enter =SLN(B2;B3;B4).

Expected result: 2000. The depreciable base is 12000−2000 = 10000. Dividing by five years gives 2000 per year. A currency display is appropriate for B6, but keep the period unit in the label.

As an independent worksheet check, =(B2-B3)/B4 should have the same mathematical target. The calculation confirms the allocation, not whether five years or a salvage of 2000 is an appropriate policy choice.

Enter period numbers 1 through 5 in A10:A14. In B10 enter =SLN($B$2;$B$3;$B$4) and fill down to B14. The dollar signs keep the inputs fixed as the formula is copied.

In C10 enter =$B$2-SUM($B$10:B10) and fill down. The expected closing book values are 10000, 8000, 6000, 4000, 2000. =SUM(B10:B14) should give 10000, equal to the depreciable base.

Limit the schedule to its intended five periods. SLN will still return the same amount if copied into a sixth row; it has no current-period argument with which to stop automatically. Extending the schedule without a guard would drive the modeled book value below salvage.

For the same cost and salvage over five years, use Life=60 for monthly periods. =SLN(12000;2000;60) has expected result 166.666666667 per month. Twelve unrounded monthly amounts sum to 2000.

Do not mix Life=5 with a schedule containing sixty monthly rows. That would repeat an annual allocation sixty times. If the model is defined in years, convert the period count before calculating monthly amounts.

Rounding each monthly result to 166.67 makes sixty displayed payments total 10000.20 if the rounded figures are actually stored and summed. Formatting to two decimals without rounding the stored numbers has a different effect. Reconcile the final period explicitly under the intended rounding policy.

For cost 12000, salvage 2000 and life five, straight-line depreciation allocates 2000 in every period. SYD instead allocates a larger amount early and a smaller amount later. Both models should reconcile to the same depreciable base when used over the complete intended lifespan.

Compare the full schedule and ending book value, rather than only the first-period amount. A smaller early expense is not automatically a better or permitted policy; SLN is an arithmetic function, not accounting advice.

• Life zero makes the independent division undefined. Validate a positive useful life before calculating; this guide does not claim a captured Collabora error code.
• For the ordinary depreciation examples, require nonnegative salvage no greater than cost. A negative depreciable base represents a different model and should not slip through silently.
• If cost equals salvage, the independent target is zero for positive Life. No depreciable base remains.
• If the result is off by twelve, inspect the period units before changing the formula.
• Text-formatted numbers, invalid references and installation-specific separators can prevent evaluation. Use actual numeric inputs and the separator your Calc setup expects.

No native application execution was performed for these examples. Their figures are independent arithmetic controls against the documented function definition.

The function is documented in Collabora Office 26.04 desktop help. The cited source was retrieved on 2026-10-13; its saved bytes were hash-verified for this guide on October 15, 2026. Online and mobile support are not inferred.

The first introduced release and last functioning version are unknown. A documentation version is evidence of documented availability, not a native execution test. No Collabora or WPS application run was performed. Numerical outputs here are independently calculated expectations, with the official examples identified where used.

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

English function names and semicolon separators are used throughout. Exact native results, invalid-input error displays and other application versions remain unverified unless explicitly documented above.