The Excel SLN Function

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Related Functions:

DB Function

DDB Function

Straight Line Depreciation

Straight line depreciation is most simple way of calculating the depreciation of an asset.

This method simply subtracts a fixed amount from the value of an asset during each period of the asset's lifetime. Therefore, the straight line depreciation for one period is calculated by the following equation:

where,

cost = initial cost of the asset (at start of period 1)
salvage = final value of the asset at the end of its lifetime
life = number of periods over which the depreciation occurs

Basic Description

The Excel SLN function calculates the straight line depreciation of an asset for one period.

The format of the function is :

SLN( cost, salvage, life )

where the arguments are as shown in the table below:

cost	-	The initial cost of the asset
salvage	-	The value of the asset at the end of the depreciation
life	-	The number of periods over which the asset is to be depreciated

Formulas:

Examples of use of the Excel SLN Function

Results:

SLN Function Examples

The examples on the right show the SLN function, used to calculate the yearly or monthly depreciation of assets with different cost, salvage and lifetime values.

The formulas are shown in the top spreadsheet, and the results are shown in the bottom spreadsheet.

Further examples of the Excel SLN function can be found on the Microsoft Office website.