Zoho Sheet INTRATE Function: Annualized Purchase-to-Sale Returns

INTRATE(settlement; maturity; purchase_value; maturity_value; [basis])

settlement is the date bought and maturity the date sold. purchase_value is the amount paid; maturity_value is the amount received. Use consistent monetary units. The function has no argument for periodic intermediate cash flows or reinvestment.

The optional basis defaults to 0. Zoho documents 0 as US NASD 30/360, 1 as actual days with an actual-length year, 2 as actual days/360, 3 as actual days/365 and 4 as European 30/360. Those are distinct conventions. This guide uses explicit 3 for reproducible actual-day examples; omitting the final argument would change the requested convention.

Construct dates with DATE(year;month;day) rather than ambiguous text. The Zoho DATE reference documents that construction. The examples use semicolons as shown in Zoho’s help; the actual editor’s locale and accepted separators should be checked before importing formulas.

The official INTRATE reference was retrieved October 15, 2026. It documents the rolling web service but does not establish the first release or last functioning version. Both historical endpoints remain unknown, and mobile/offline parity is not certified by the web entry.

Expected numbers below are independent simple-interest or discount-model calculations from fully specified inputs, not captured native Zoho output. The source lists syntax, argument meanings, day-count options and sample results, but its embedded example input cells are not visible in the retrieved text. Those hidden datasets are not reconstructed or claimed as executed tests. The ordinary positive, forward-date examples do not resolve every boundary or coercion behavior.

Enter headers Settlement, Maturity, Purchase_value, Maturity_value and Basis in A1:E1. Populate A2 with =DATE(2026;4;1), B2 with =DATE(2026;7;1), C2 with 9800, D2 with 10000 and E2 with 3.

In F2 enter =INTRATE(A2;B2;C2;D2;E2). The independent expectation is 0.0818569186, approximately 8.18569186% annually. The actual holding interval is 91 days and the increase is 200 on an initial 9800.

In G2 enter =(D2-C2)/C2*365/(B2-A2). This separately exposes the arithmetic: holding return 200/9800 is scaled by 365/91. The holding-period return itself is 0.0204081633, about 2.04081633%. It should not be mislabeled as the annual INTRATE value.

Use the same dates, initial amount 10000 and basis 3 in three further rows. Set the final amounts to 10100, 10200 and 10500. The independent annualized expectations are 0.0401098901, 0.0802197802 and 0.2005494505, respectively.

For this fixed initial investment and interval, doubling the monetary gain doubles the simple annualized rate. That linearity would not describe every compound-return measure. The examples deliberately exclude intermediate deposits, withdrawals and coupon payments because the syntax supplies no dates and amounts for them.

Put an initial 10000 and final 10200 in a second model. January 1 to April 1, 2026 spans 90 days; April 1 to July 1 spans 91; January 1 to July 1 spans 181. With basis 3, the independent annual rates are 0.0811111111, 0.0802197802 and 0.0403314917.

The same 2% gain represents a lower annualized rate over a longer holding interval. Calling all three periods “three or six months” is not enough to reproduce an actual-day calculation. Retain complete dates and explicitly verify the elapsed-day column.

For a purchase of 9800 and receipt of 10000, redemption-based discount arithmetic gives 0.0802197802, whereas INTRATE’s investment-based control gives 0.0818569186. Replacing the denominator with the final amount changes the metric.

Scaling both amounts by the same factor leaves the modeled rate unchanged: 98 to 100 has the same result as 9800 to 10000. A currency conversion applied consistently to both amounts likewise does not introduce an exchange-rate gain into this calculation; differing exchange rates would be additional inputs outside this simple comparison.

The arithmetic control multiplies a holding return by a year fraction’s inverse. It does not raise a growth factor to an exponent. A compound annual-growth calculation answers a different question and must not be substituted merely because both outputs are labeled annual rates.

For a reproducible day-count comparison, change only E2 from 3 to 2. The actual/360 expectation becomes 0.0807355909. Neither value is universally preferable; the intended convention determines which calculation is relevant. Month-end NASD and European rules and multi-year actual/actual conventions are outside these controls.

Zoho documents #NUM! when either monetary input is less than or equal to zero, when basis is outside 0–4, or when settlement is after maturity. The equality-to-zero restriction here is explicit and differs from the wording on some neighboring financial entries.

Equal settlement and maturity dates are not explicitly resolved by the listed rule. The independent arithmetic divides by elapsed time, so zero-day examples are excluded rather than assigned an invented native error. Fractional basis handling, blanks and invalid-date coercions are also untested.

If a result is unexpectedly large, check whether a short actual interval was annualized, whether 8 was entered instead of 8%, and whether the initial and final values use the same units. Inspect the underlying numeric value before changing format. The fictional examples are calculation controls and do not include fees, taxes or investment-risk analysis.