Talk:Documentation/Calc Functions/VDB

SF Comments

 * (1) Summary. For consistency, suggest the following replacement wording – “Calculates the depreciation of an asset over an arbitrary period of time, using a variable declining balance method. This is an accelerated method that gives higher depreciation in the earlier periods of the asset’s useful life.”.
 * (2) Syntax. Why is the start period argument abbreviated to S, while the End period argument is not abbreviated? I would prefer to use “Start” rather than “S” (changes required throughout the page to implement this).
 * (3) Returns. Suggest the following replacement text – “Returns a real number (in currency units) which is the depreciation allowance of an asset for the given arguments, calculated using a variable declining balance method.”. Maybe state that the value is, by default, formatted as a currency.
 * (4) Arguments, Cost. Change “an asset” to “the asset”. Maybe state that this argument should be entered in the same currency unit as the Salvage argument. The code checks that Cost >= 0 (i.e. the word positive is not strictly correct).
 * (5) Arguments, Salvage. Change “an asset” to “the asset”. Maybe state that this argument should be entered in the same currency unit as the Cost argument. The code checks that Salvage <= Cost.
 * (6) Arguments, Life. Change “period fixing the time span over which an asset is depreciated” to “number of periods over which the asset is being depreciated”.
 * (7) Arguments, S. Suggest re-word to say that this is the start period number for which the depreciation is calculated. It may be fractional and must be >= 0, <= End and <= Life. Also, delete the final sentence which is not relevant.
 * (8) Arguments, End. Suggest re-word to say that this is the end period number for which the depreciation is calculated. It may be fractional and must be >= Start and <= Life.
 * (9) Arguments, Factor. Change “depreciation factor” to “depreciation rate”. Change “double rate depreciation” to “double declining balance depreciation”. Also change “considered by” to “the”.
 * (10) Arguments, bullets. Please can you review these bullets against the conditions covered in my previous comments – they are not all captured correctly. Also, can you review the grammar – the second bullet for example makes no sense whatsoever.
 * (11) Additional details. A link to a suitable Wikipedia page would be beneficial (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depreciation#Diminishing_balance_method).
 * (12) Additional details. This is a relatively complex function, and we need to populate this section. There is much useful background at https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/How_Tos/Calc:_VDB_function. However, I am conscious that its population may be onerous, and I am happy to populate the section myself in due course if RG does not have time available.
 * (13) Examples, 1st example. Suggested re-wording for Description – “This function calculates the declining balance depreciation for an asset that initially cost 35,000 currency units and has a salvage value of 7,500 currency units. The useful life of the asset is three years, and the depreciation is to be carried out over 36 monthly periods. The depreciation is to be calculated from month 10 to month 20, using a depreciation rate of 3. The NoSwitch flag is set so that VDB should never switch to straight-line depreciation.”.
 * (14) Examples, 2nd example. Suggested re-wording for Description – “This function calculates the declining balance depreciation for an asset that initially cost 35,000 currency units and has a salvage value of 7,500 currency units. The useful life of the asset is three years, and the depreciation is to be carried out over 36 monthly periods. The depreciation is to be calculated from month 10 to month 20, using a default depreciation rate of 2. The NoSwitch flag is set its default value of FALSE so that VDB can switch to straight-line depreciation when appropriate.”.
 * (15) Examples, general. Please can you check that there are no other examples of error conditions that might be worth including?

--Stevefanning (talk) 2020-11-27T19:56:40 (UTC)

Laura Comments
Edited the page based on SF comments, and added a brief description in Additional details.