Excel like a finance pro.
DB
FinanceFixed-declining-balance depreciation — accelerated, at a single rate Excel works out for you.
Difficulty
1What is it?
DB depreciates an asset by a fixed percentage of its remaining book value each year. It's accelerated like DDB, but instead of doubling the straight-line rate it derives one rate from the cost, salvage, and life — rate = 1 − (salvage/cost)^(1/life), rounded to three decimals — and applies that same rate every year. An optional [month] prorates the first year for an asset placed in service partway through it. It's the declining method that actually homes in on salvage, and it's common in tax depreciation.
2What it looks like
DB(cost, salvage, life, period, [month])- cost
- What the asset cost, all-in (purchase + freight + install).
- salvage
- Its value at the end of its life. Must be above 0 — the rate takes a root of salvage/cost.
- life
- Useful life, in years.
- period
- Which year you're computing — 1 for the first, 2 for the next…
- [month]
- Months of service in the first year (default 12); lower it to prorate a mid-year purchase.
3When you use it
- A tax-style accelerated schedule that still lands near salvage value.
- Depreciate an asset bought mid-year — set month to prorate year 1.
- Compare a fixed-rate decline against DDB and straight-line.
4See it in action
Change the inputs — the formula and result update live. Prefer the real thing? Download the Excel file and open it in Excel.
DB depreciates by a single rate Excel derives from cost, salvage, and life — accelerated, and it lands near salvage. Edit the inputs and the whole schedule spills down.
=DB(B2, B3, B4, 1)Year 1: $16,020| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Field | Value | Result |
| 2 | Cost | Year 1: $16,020 | |
| 3 | Salvage | Year 2: $10,317 | |
| 4 | Life (yrs) | Year 3: $6,644 | |
| 5 | Year 4: $4,279 | ||
| 6 | Year 5: $2,756 |
The lime cell holds the formula — click it (or any cell) to see its contents in the bar above, just like Excel. Edit the blue cells to watch it recompute.
5Common errors
#NUM!salvage is 0 (or negative), or period is outside 1…life+1.Fix: DB needs a salvage above 0 — its rate takes a root of salvage/cost. Use VDB or SLN when salvage is truly 0.
#VALUE!an argument isn't a number.Fix: Point cost, salvage, life, and period at real numbers.
Rate looks offYou expected double-declining like DDB.Fix: DB derives one rate from cost/salvage/life and rounds it to 3 decimals — it isn't DDB's 2/life. Use DDB for that.
6Better functions & alternatives
- DDB / SLN / SYD — The three classic methods — double-declining, straight-line, sum-of-years.
- VDB — Declining balance that auto-switches to straight-line so the asset fully depreciates to salvage.
Want DB already wired into a model? Wauvel's free tools download as branded, formula-driven Excel.
Learn the moves here — or let Wauvel run them on your numbers.
Meet your AI CFO →