The tutor promotes his equal-opportunity point of view towards computing.

I use Microsoft’s programs: witness my post from Sept 28 about using Excel to calculate IRR.

However, some of my computers aren’t Windows; rather, they’re Linux. I don’t have a Mac.

Although Windows dominates the PC landscape, I want to offer equal opportunity to those using Linux. My Linux computers come with the LibreOffice suite, which is under the Mozilla Public License. Today I’ll tell how to calculate IRR using LibreOffice Calc, which is the LibreOffice spreadsheet.

I’m no expert on spreadsheets, but I’d say LibreOffice Calc reminds me of an earlier version of Excel, or perhaps Lotus. The point: it’s not that different.

Here’s what I find the easiest way to calculate IRR for the set of cash flows

-130000, -60000, 0, 215000, -7500

on LibreOffice Calc:

1. Open LibreOffice Calc. Enter the cash flow values across a row of cells, for instance a6 to e6.
2. Now select another cell, maybe g6.
3. In that cell, type =IRR(a6:e6), then press ENTER. The value 3.38% will likely appear in the cell:)

Recall the answer from Excel in my post from Sept 28: 0.033777697 or 3.3777697%. Rounded to two decimal places, it agrees with the 3.38% we are getting from LibreOffice Calc.

In Excel, the instructions above will also work.

I’ll be talking much more about Excel and LibreOffice Calc.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.