Payback Period Calculator
Payback Period Calculator
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Payback Period Calculator
Payback Period · Discounted Payback · Project Comparison
The payback period is the time it takes to recover your initial investment from net cash flows. It's the simplest capital budgeting metric — a fast payback means lower liquidity risk. Enter uneven annual cash flows or use a constant annual return.
Investment Details
$
yrs
$
yrs
Payback Period
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Payback Assessment
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💰 Investment Recovery Progress
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Start
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Full Recovery
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Payback Period
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vs Target Payback
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Initial Investment
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Annual Cash Flow
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Payback Period
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Target Period
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Total CF (analysis period)
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Net Profit After Payback
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Break-Even Annual CF
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Return on Investment
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📋 Year-by-Year Cash Flow Recovery
| Year | Cash Flow | Cumulative CF | Unrecovered | Recovery % |
|---|
🔮 Payback Scenarios
If cash flows 25% higher:—
If cash flows 25% lower (downside):—
CF needed to pay back in 2 years:—
CF needed to pay back in 1 year:—
If investment was 20% lower:—
Payback Period Insights
The discounted payback period asks: how long until you recover your investment in present value terms? Because it applies a discount rate to each cash flow, it's a more conservative and accurate measure than simple payback — the answer is always longer.
Project Details
$
$
%
yrs
%/yr (0 = flat)
yrs
Discounted Payback Period
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Discounted Payback Analysis
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Discounted Payback
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Simple Payback
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Discount Penalty
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Initial Investment
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Discount Rate
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Simple Payback
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Discounted Payback
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PV of All CFs
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NPV (analysis period)
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Profitability Index
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CF Growth Rate
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📋 Discounted Cash Flow Recovery Schedule
| Year | Nominal CF | PV of CF | Cum. PV | Unrecovered (PV) | PV Recovery % |
|---|
🔮 Discounted Payback Scenarios
If discount rate was 5% (lower cost of capital):—
If discount rate was 15% (higher cost):—
If discount rate was 20%:—
Annual CF needed for 3-yr discounted payback:—
NPV if project life is the payback period only:—
Discounted Payback Insights
Compare two projects side-by-side across simple payback, discounted payback, NPV, and ROI. See which recovers faster and which creates more value — because the fastest payback isn't always the best investment.
Shared Settings
%
yrs
yrs
Project A
$
yrs
Annual Cash Flows — Project A
Project B
$
yrs
Annual Cash Flows — Project B
Comparison Result
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Project A
Project A
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Project B
Project B
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A — Simple Payback
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B — Simple Payback
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A — Discounted Payback
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B — Discounted Payback
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A — NPV
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B — NPV
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A — Total ROI
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B — Total ROI
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🔮 Comparison Scenarios
Faster payback (lower liquidity risk):—
Higher NPV (more value created):—
Better total ROI (most profitable):—
For capital-constrained decision — choose:—
For wealth-maximising decision — choose:—
Project Comparison Insights