Skip to content
Free Excel Tutorials
  • Home
  • Excel For Beginners
  • Excel Intermediate
  • Advanced Excel For Experts

Data Analysis

  • Excel Pie Chart
  • How To Compare Two Lists in Excel
  • Conditional Formatting Color Scales Examples in Excel
  • Get column name from index in Excel Table
  • How to sum a total in multiple Excel tables

References

  • How to create dynamic named range with OFFSET in Excel
  • Approximate match with multiple criteria in Excel
  • How to retrieve first match between two ranges in Excel
  • Vlookup Examples in Excel
  • Complete List of Excel Lookup and Reference Functions, References and Examples

Data Validations

  • Excel Data validation unique values only
  • Excel Data validation must contain specific text
  • Excel Data validation must not contain
  • Excel Data validation no punctuation
  • Data validation must not exist in list

DDB function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

by

What is DDB function in Excel?

DDB function is one of the Financial functions in Microsoft Excel that returns the depreciation of an asset for a specified period using the double-declining balance method or some other method you specify.

Syntax of DDB function

DDB(cost, salvage, life, period, [factor])

The DDB function syntax has the following arguments:

  • Cost: The initial cost of the asset.
  • Salvage: The value at the end of the depreciation (sometimes called the salvage value of the asset). This value can be 0.
  • Life: The number of periods over which the asset is being depreciated (sometimes called the useful life of the asset).
  • Period: The period for which you want to calculate the depreciation. Period must use the same units as life.
  • Factor (Optional): The rate at which the balance declines. If factor is omitted, it is assumed to be 2 (the double-declining balance method).

Important: All five arguments must be positive numbers.

DDB formula explanation

  • The double-declining balance method computes depreciation at an accelerated rate. Depreciation is highest in the first period and decreases in successive periods. DDB uses the following formula to calculate depreciation for a period:

Min( (cost – total depreciation from prior periods) * (factor/life), (cost – salvage – total depreciation from prior periods) )

  • Change factor if you do not want to use the double-declining balance method.
  • Use the VDB function if you want to switch to the straight-line depreciation method when depreciation is greater than the declining balance calculation.

Example of DDB function

Steps to follow:

1. Open a new Excel worksheet.

2. Copy data in the following table below and paste it in cell A1

Note: For formulas to show results, select them, press F2 key on your keyboard and then press Enter.

You can adjust the column widths to see all the data, if need be.

Data Description
$2,400 Initial cost
$300 Salvage value
10 Lifetime in years
Formula Description Result
=DDB(A2,A3,A4*365,1) First day’s depreciation, using double-declining balance method. Default factor is 2. $1.32
=DDB(A2,A3,A4*12,1,2) First month’s depreciation. $40.00
=DDB(A2,A3,A4,1,2) First year’s depreciation. $480.00
=DDB(A2,A3,A4,2,1.5) Second year’s depreciation using a factor of 1.5 instead of the double-declining balance method. $306.00
=DDB(A2,A3,A4,10) Tenth year’s depreciation. Default factor is 2. $22.12

Post navigation

Previous Post:

MODE.MULT function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Next Post:

231 Keyboard Shortcut Keys In Excel

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn Basic Excel

Ribbon
Workbook
Worksheets
Format Cells
Find & Select
Sort & Filter
Templates
Print
Share
Protect
Keyboard Shortcuts

Categories

  • Charts
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Validation
  • Excel Functions
    • Cube Functions
    • Database Functions
    • Date and Time Functions
    • Engineering Functions
    • Financial Functions
    • Information Functions
    • Logical Functions
    • Lookup and Reference Functions
    • Math and Trig Functions
    • Statistical Functions
    • Text Functions
    • Web Functions
  • Excel VBA
  • Excel Video Tutorials
  • Formatting
  • Grouping
  • Others

Logical Functions

  • How to use IFS function in Excel
  • NOT function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Return blank if in Excel
  • IFS function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • AND function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Date Time

  • How to get Weekdays, Working days between Two Dates in Excel
  • Get days between dates ignoring years in Excel
  • WORKDAY function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • How to calculate quarter from date in Excel
  • Convert Unix time stamp to Excel date

Grouping

  • Group numbers at uneven intervals in Excel
  • Group times into unequal buckets in Excel
  • Map inputs to arbitrary values in Excel
  • Calculate conditional mode with criteria in Excel
  • If cell contains one of many things in Excel

General

  • How to fill cell ranges with random text values in Excel
  • Basic error trapping example in Excel
  • How to generate random date between two dates in Excel
  • How to set or clear a print area in Excel Worksheet
  • Basic numeric sort formula in Excel
© 2025 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles | Abbreviations And Their Meaning