Spreadsheets: Google Sheets: intrate function

Self-tutoring about spreadsheet functions: the tutor mentions intrate() in Google Sheets.

The following is according to my understanding.

The function intrate() calculates the effective interest rate for a buy-then-sell event. Its entry format is =intrate(date1,date2,value1,value2,[optional: day_count_convention]). The idea is that if property is purchased at value1 on date1, then sold for value2 on date2, an equivalent interest rate is implied.

In my experience, =intrate(“01/13/2026″,”06/01/2026”,100,130,1) gives the result 0.7878, rounded to 4 decimal places. One can see this makes sense, since the profit is 30% but over a duration less than half a year.

Note that 1, the fifth parameter in brackets, means the time between date1 and date2, in years, will be calculated as (actual days held)/(actual days in the year): it’s the day count convention. While one might expect (actual/actual) to be the normal choice, it isn’t necessarily so.

In connection with the dates themselves, as I mention in my post from Dec 18, 2025, Google Sheets seems to use mm/dd/yyyy in North America. Since I’m in Canada, “06/01/2026” means June 1, 2026.

I hope to mention more about the day count convention as well as other Google Sheets functions in future posts.

Source:

support.google.com