PlanMaker PPMT Function: Calculate the Principal in Each Payment
Use PPMT in PlanMaker with documented arguments, a reproducible loan worksheet, payment timing, reconciliation checks and practical limits.
Verification status: See the evidence and test scope described in this guide. How formula examples are checked
Quick answer: =PPMT(6%/12,1,36,12000) gives an expected -305.06 for the principal part of the first monthly payment on a 12,000 loan. The nominal annual rate is 6%, the term is three years, and payments occur at month-end. Negative amounts represent payments out.
Availability and version history
- Introduced: Documented in the PlanMaker 2016 manual; the first introduction release and date remain unknown.
- Availability: Documented in the 2026 English reference; no final supported-version endpoint is established.
- Scope: Versioned documentation does not establish identical behavior in every desktop, mobile or localized build.
- Checked: October 14, 2026, against the official PPMT reference, with independent amortization calculations. No native PlanMaker test.
Syntax and defaults
=PPMT(Rate, Per, NPer, PV [, FV] [, Type])
| Argument | Meaning | Required or default |
|---|---|---|
Rate |
Interest rate per payment period | Required; use 6%/12 for this monthly model |
Per |
Individual installment to inspect | Required; 1 is the first payment |
NPer |
Total payment periods | Required; 3*12 for three years of monthly payments |
PV |
Initial amount or present value | Required |
FV |
Value after the last scheduled payment | Optional; 0 if omitted |
Type |
Timing: 0 at period-end, 1 at period-start | Optional; 0 if omitted |
The 2026 function reference documents these positions and defaults. Do not type the brackets. To select beginning payments, supply the preceding FV position explicitly: =PPMT(6%/12,1,36,12000,0,1).
The examples use the English manual’s comma separators. Follow your installed editor’s formula syntax and numeric locale; see entering formulas. Rate and period count must use the same time unit.
Build the loan worksheet
Use a blank worksheet. Put these labels in column A and their values or formulas in column B:
| Row | A: Label | B: Enter |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Nominal annual rate | 6% |
| 3 | Term in years | 3 |
| 4 | Original loan | 12000 |
| 5 | Installment number | 1 |
| 6 | Total monthly payment | =PMT(B2/12,B3*12,B4) |
| 7 | Interest component | =IPMT(B2/12,B5,B3*12,B4) |
| 8 | Principal component | =PPMT(B2/12,B5,B3*12,B4) |
| 9 | Component check | =B7+B8-B6 |
Expect B6=-365.06, B7=-60.00, B8=-305.06 and B9 approximately 0. Format amounts to two decimals without rounding the stored calculations. B7 is -12000*(6%/12), or -60. The rest of the payment reduces principal.
PMT returns the whole installment. The official IPMT reference explains its complementary component. For matching inputs, IPMT + PPMT = PMT; neither component alone is the full payment.
Compare early and late installments
Change only B5. Keep the original rate, total term and original loan balance in the function:
| B5: Period | Expected interest | Expected principal | Expected total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | -60.00 | -305.06 | -365.06 |
| 12 | -42.80 | -322.27 | -365.06 |
| 36 | -1.82 | -363.25 | -365.06 |
The interest portion shrinks as the balance falls; principal grows to keep the total payment constant. Do not replace PV with the remaining balance while retaining the original NPer and Per. That would describe a different loan.
Build a full schedule and cross-check the arithmetic
Reset B5 to 1. In A11:F11 enter Period, Opening balance, Interest, Principal, Payment, Closing balance. Enter these first-row values and formulas:
| Cell | Enter |
|---|---|
| A12 | 1 |
| B12 | =$B$4 |
| C12 | =IPMT($B$2/12,A12,$B$3*12,$B$4) |
| D12 | =PPMT($B$2/12,A12,$B$3*12,$B$4) |
| E12 | =C12+D12 |
| F12 | =B12+D12 |
| A13 | =A12+1 |
| B13 | =F12 |
Copy C12:F12 to C13:F13, then fill A13:F13 through row 47, which is payment 36. The first closing balance is 11,694.94; F47 should be near zero. No extra payment is added after row 47.
For a check that does not call IPMT or PPMT, enter =-B12*$B$2/12 in H12 and =$B$6-H12 in I12. Fill H12:I12 through row 47. H should agree with C and I with D. This recurrence uses each opening balance and the fixed total payment. Keep full precision: rounding each monthly component before carrying the balance forward can leave a different final remainder.
Beginning-of-period payments
Keep the original worksheet unchanged and enter =PPMT(6%/12,1,36,12000,0,1) in H2 and =PPMT(6%/12,2,36,12000,0,1) in H3. Expected results are -363.25 and -305.06. The first installment is immediate: its interest component is zero and its entire -363.25 payment goes to principal.
The total beginning-period payment is smaller than the month-end payment because money reduces the balance earlier. The source documents the timing option; these figures follow the independent annuity model. The end-period recurrence in H12:I47 must not be reused unchanged for this timing.
Check the vendor’s larger-loan example
SoftMaker uses a 100,000 loan, nominal annual rate 10%, 72 monthly payments and period 32. =PPMT(10%/12,32,6*12,100000) gives an independently calculated -1,318.28. The matching total payment is -1,852.58.
The English reference prints its principal example as -1.318. In this context the independent loan calculation is approximately -1,318.28, not -1.318 currency units. Use the formula’s numeric inputs rather than copying the displayed punctuation as a number.
Troubleshooting and model limits
- Annual versus monthly units: 6% is 0.06; for this nominal-rate monthly model use
6%/12, not6%or6/12. A quoted effective annual rate needs a different periodic-rate conversion. - Wrong installment: use whole periods within the scheduled term. The short PlanMaker reference does not establish every invalid-period error code or fractional-period coercion rule.
- A nonzero final balance: FV changes the payment calculation. The worked loan explicitly targets zero; do not use its expected values for a balloon-balance model.
- Unexpected sign: positive PV represents money received now, with negative repayments later. Reversing signs changes that viewpoint.
- Lender statement differs: fees, actual-day accrual, variable rates, extra repayments and contractual rounding require their own schedule.
Zero or negative rates, text coercion and malformed inputs are outside these worked cases. Similar formulas in Excel do not establish PlanMaker’s exact errors, localization or imported-workbook behavior. ABS can help compare a numerical reconciliation against a chosen small tolerance.