Free HP-12C Financial Calculator OnlineRPN, TVM, Loans, NPV, IRR, Bonds, Depreciation & More

What are n, i, PV, PMT, and FV?

These five registers hold every time-value-of-money problem this calculator solves. Store four of them and press the fifth key to solve for the one you don’t know.

How do you store or solve a TVM value?

Key in a number and press n, i, PV, PMT, or FV to store it in that register. Press the same key with nothing freshly keyed in, and the calculator solves for it from the other four.

Sign convention

Money you receive is positive; money you pay out is negative. On a loan, PV (what you borrow) is positive and PMT (what you pay back) comes out negative, or the other way around if you set it up as the lender. Getting a payment or answer with an unexpected sign almost always means one input has the wrong sign.

BEGIN vs. END

END mode assumes each payment lands at the end of its period (an ordinary annuity — most loans). BEGIN mode assumes payments land at the start (an annuity due — most leases). Switching modes changes the payment amount slightly, since one fewer period of interest accrues under BEGIN. Use g 7 for BEGIN and g 8 for END; the badge at the top of the calculator shows which mode is active.

How do you calculate a loan payment?

A loan payment is a TVM problem: store the loan amount as PV, the number of payments as n, the rate per period as i, and press PMT.

Example: $200,000, 30 years, 6% annual

1. 360 n (30 years × 12 months)
2. 0.5 i (6% ÷ 12 months)
3. 200000 PV
4. 0 FV (loan fully repaid)
5. Press PMT

Result: PMT = −1,199.10 per month.

Solving for PV, FV, or n

The same five TVM registers solve any of them. Store the four you know and press the one you’re missing.

Present value example

What lump sum today grows to $50,000 in 10 years at 4% annual, compounded once a year?

1. 10 n
2. 4 i
3. 0 PMT
4. 50000 FV
5. Press PV

Result: PV = −33,778.21 — the negative sign shows it’s an outflow (money you’d set aside now) against the positive future value.

Future value example

Deposit $300 a month for 20 years at 5% annual, compounded monthly. Store n = 240, i = 0.41667 (5 ÷ 12), PMT = −300, PV = 0, then press FV. Result: FV = 123,310.10.

Solving for n

Store i, PV, PMT, and FV, then press n. This is useful for “how long until this is paid off / grows to this amount” questions, and it returns a fractional number of periods if the last one is partial.

How do you enter cash flows for NPV and IRR?

NPV and IRR work from a list of cash flows instead of the five TVM registers.

1. Key in the initial outlay (usually negative) and press g STO — this is CF0.
2. Key in each following cash flow and press g STO again — each one becomes CFj.
3. If a cash flow repeats, key in the repeat count and press g RCL (this is Nj) right after entering that CFj.
4. Store the discount rate in i.
5. Press f PV for NPV, or f FV for IRR.

You can also import a full cash-flow list from a CSV file with the “Import CF” button: one value per line, with an optional ,count after a value to repeat it (matching what g RCL/Nj does manually).

What is the difference between NPV and IRR?

NPV discounts every future cash flow back to today at a rate you choose, then nets them against the initial outlay — a dollar figure. IRR is the discount rate that would make that NPV exactly zero — a percentage. NPV tells you the value created at your required rate; IRR tells you the break-even rate itself.

Example

Invest $10,000 today. Receive $3,000 a year for 5 years. Discount rate: 10%.

NPV = 1,372.36   IRR = 15.24%. Since the IRR is above the 10% discount rate, and NPV is positive, the project clears the 10% hurdle.

How do you calculate bond price and yield?

Bond math here assumes a semiannual coupon, matching the real HP-12C’s default. PMT holds the coupon rate as an annual percentage, i holds the yield as an annual percentage, and FV holds the redemption value (defaults to 100 if left at zero).

Price from yield

1. Coupon rate in PMT, yield in i, redemption value in FV
2. Key in the settlement date, press ENTER
3. Key in the maturity date
4. Press f yˣ for PRICE

Example: a 10-year, 8% annual-coupon bond (paid semiannually), redemption value 100, settled on the issue date. At an 8% yield the price is 100.00 (par). Raise the yield to 10% with everything else unchanged and the price drops to 87.54 — yield and price move in opposite directions.

Yield from price

Put the price you want to check into PV, then press f 1/x for YTM. Feeding 87.54 back in as PV for that same bond returns a yield close to 10%, the inverse of the calculation above.

Dates are entered as MM.DDYYYY (or DD.MMYYYY in D.MY mode — see the Dates tab).

How does depreciation work here?

Store the useful life in n, the cost in PV, and the salvage value in FV. Key in the year you want and press one of three keys, each giving a different method.

Example: $50,000 asset, $5,000 salvage, 5-year life, year 1

• Straight-line: depreciation = 9,000.00; remaining depreciable base = 36,000.00
• Sum-of-years-digits: depreciation = 15,000.00; remaining base = 30,000.00
• Declining balance (factor 200, i.e. double-declining): depreciation = 20,000.00; book value after year 1 = 30,000.00

Each key returns two numbers: the depreciation for that year in X, and either the remaining depreciable base (SL/SOYD) or the remaining book value (DB) in Y.

How does the amortization schedule work?

Solve PMT first (see the Loans tab), then key in the number of periods you want to step through and press f n for AMORT. Press it again with a fresh count to advance further into the schedule.

Example: $10,000 loan, 12 months, 1% per month

PMT solves to −888.49. Stepping one period with AMORT returns: interest = 100.00, principal = 788.49, remaining balance = 9,211.51. Running the full 12 months brings total interest to 661.85 and the balance to zero.

Exporting the full schedule

The “Amort CSV” button builds the complete period-by-period schedule (period, interest, principal, balance) straight from n/i/PV/PMT and downloads it as a CSV file — a separate calculation from the AMORT key, so exporting a schedule doesn’t disturb wherever you are in a manual step-through.

How do date calculations work?

Dates are entered as a single number: MM.DDYYYY by default, or DD.MMYYYY after switching to D.MY mode with g 4 (switch back with g 5). The badge near the top of the calculator shows which format is active.

Examples

03.152026 ENTER, 90, g CHS → 06.132026, day 6 (Saturday, where 1 = Monday and 7 = Sunday).

03.152026 ENTER, 09.132026, g EEX → 182 days.

How do statistics work here?

Key in each value and press Σ+ to accumulate it. The mean and sample standard deviation only use the X values you’ve entered, so you don’t need to touch Y for a simple list.

Example: test scores 72, 85, 90, 78, 95

Key in each number followed by Σ+. Then press g 0 for the mean and g . (decimal point) for the sample standard deviation.

Mean = 84.00   Sample standard deviation ≈ 9.19

Weighted mean

For a weighted average, enter the weight first, press ENTER, then key in the value and press Σ+ for each pair. Press g 6 for the weighted mean.

Example: prices of $10, $12, and $15 for quantities of 100, 50, and 25 units. Entering weight ENTER price Σ+ for each pair and pressing g 6 gives a weighted mean price of 11.29.

g 2 clears the statistics registers (Σ) without touching anything else.

Can I save my calculator calculations?

Yes, in several ways. Ten general-purpose registers (R0–R9) hold numbers with STO and RCL. STO +/−/×/÷ followed by a register digit does arithmetic on that register’s current value with whatever is in X. RCL n, RCL i, RCL PV, RCL PMT, or RCL FV displays the stored TVM value without re-solving it.

The calculator also auto-saves your session to your browser as you work and reloads it the next time you visit — “Reset saved session” clears that automatically-saved copy.

Clearing registers

f CLx clears the stack and R0–R9 only, leaving TVM, cash flows, and statistics untouched. g 1 clears n/i/PV/PMT/FV plus the cash-flow list. g 2 clears the statistics registers.

Does the calculator support programming?

It records and replays keystrokes, up to 100 steps — a simple keystroke macro, not a general-purpose programming language.

1. f R/S enters recording mode.
2. Press the keys you want the program to replay.
3. f R/S again to leave recording mode.
4. R/S runs the program from the start; press it again to stop.
5. SST steps forward one instruction at a time; g SST steps back.

g R↓ followed by a two-digit address records or jumps to a GTO target. g x↔y tests whether X ≤ Y — inside a running or stepped program this skips the next instruction when the test fails; outside a program it just reports TRUE or FALSE on the paper tape.

Small example

A two-step program that adds a 15% markup to whatever’s in X: record 1.15, ×. Run it against any number in X and it multiplies by 1.15.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Click anywhere on the page first to activate keyboard input, then use:

The keyboard shortcuts panel built into the calculator (below the keys) lists the same mappings with a few extra notes on decimal-place, depreciation, bond, and date entry.