Uneven Cashflow is a Shareware product. It is not free. Shareware products are supported by computer users who feel that a software product is useful and is worth the requested fee. If you are using this product please send Ten Dollars to: Anonymous Programmer Software Co. P.O. Box 39513 Downey, Ca. 90241 Uneven Cashflow is a Financial Services Product. It was designed with ease of use in mind and contains this on-line help facility. Uneven Cashflow has three main functions. It will calculate the Net Present Value, the Internal Rate of Return and the Financial Management Rate of Return of an Investment. Uneven Cashflow contains an editor and has the ability to store cashflow scenarios. To edit a file, either move the cursor to "EDIT" and press "ENTER" or simply press "E" for EDIT. A banner will display "EDITTING:" along with the name of the file. To edit a field, place the cursor on it and then press "Enter". The field will then be modifiable. After modifying a field either press "Enter" or move a cursor key. Press "ESC" to exit the editor. The Uneven Cashflow Profile is used to set constraints for various program functions. Net Present Value is the calculated difference between the cost of an investment and the discounted value of future cashflows. Net Present Value requires a discount rate (generally your cost of capital). A default interest rate is provided. However, it may be changed in the Profile. Additionally, if you do not wish to be continually prompted for a discount rate, you may turn Discount Rate Prompting off in the Profile. The three interest rate variables; High Interest Rate, Interim Interest Rate and Low interest Rate are all used by the Internal Rate of Return function as starting values. If you have a good idea as to what the answer to a calculation will be, you can affect the performance of Internal Rate of Return by adjusting these variables. The Interim Interest Rate is the Interest Rate that Internal Rate of Return will begin. The High Interest Rate is the High Water Mark of the range of interest rates which Internal Rate of Return considers "Reasonable". Conversely, the Low Interest Rate is the low end of the interest rate range. This should not be construed to mean that an interest rate outside of this range is incalculable. Internal Rate of Return will eventually realize that the range is inappropriate and adjust accordingly. However, if Internal Rate of Return calculations seem slow, adjusting these variables may dramatically improve response time. The Error Margin Variable determines when Internal Rate of Return has found a usable anwser. Internal Rate of Return is the Discount Rate which when used to calculate Net Present Value returns an answer of zero. The Error Margin Variable is the allowable percentage difference between the discounted cashflow value and the Present Value (the first cashflow). The default Error Margin is 1 percent. Therefore if Discounted Cashflow - Present Value ----------------------------------- * 100 Present Value is less than 1 then a valid answer has been found. PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT a 1 percent error in in Internal Rate of Return. It is a 1 percent error between calculated and actual cashflows. If a one percent error margin is not accurate enough you can change this value in the Profile. However, Internal Rate of Return will run longer when trying to determine an extremely accurate answer. The Financial Management Rate of Return calculates a return which can be more realistic than the Internal Rate of Return. The Internal Rate of Return may not be accurate for small cashflows, eg., you may have to place a small cashflow in a passbook savings account at 5 1/4 percent interest. The Financial Management Rate of Return will make allowances for these real world situations by allowing a "Safe Rate" and a "Risk Rate". The Safe Rate is the rate you can expect to receive for small stipends. The Risk Rate is the rate you expect to receive for participating in a relatively "illiquid" investment. Default Safe Rates and Risk Rates may be set in the Profile. Also, prompting for the two rates may be turned on or off.