What is the formula for calculating payback period?
Robert Miller
Updated on February 10, 2026
To calculate the payback period you can use the mathematical formula: Payback Period = Initial investment / Cash flow per year For example, you have invested Rs 1,00,000 with an annual payback of Rs 20,000. Payback Period = 1,00,000/20,000 = 5 years.
How do you calculate payback period in SPM?
Step 2: Divide the total cumulative flow in the year in which the cash flows became positive by the total flow of the consecutive year. So that is: 5/7 = 0.71. Step 3: Step 1 + Step 2 = The payback period is 2.71 years.
How do you calculate simple payback period?
To determine how to calculate payback period in practice, you simply divide the initial cash outlay of a project by the amount of net cash inflow that the project generates each year. For the purposes of calculating the payback period formula, you can assume that the net cash inflow is the same each year.
Do you include depreciation in payback period?
Depreciation is a non-cash expense and has therefore been ignored while calculating the payback period of the project. According to payback method, the equipment should be purchased because the payback period of the equipment is 2.5 years which is shorter than the maximum desired payback period of 4 years.
What is the average payback period?
Average Payback Period is a method that indicates in what time the initial investment should be repaid ( at a uniform implementation of cash flows). Average Payback Period, usually not abbreviated.
How do you calculate the payback period for a second project?
A second project requires a cash investment of $200,000 and it generates cash as follows: The payback period is 3.4 years ($20,000 + $60,000 + $80,000 = $160,000 in the first three years + $40,000 of the $100,000 occurring in Year 4). Note that the payback calculation uses cash flows, not net income.
How do you calculate the payback period in cash flow?
Because the cash inflow is uneven, the payback period formula cannot be used to compute the payback period. We can compute the payback period by computing the cumulative net cash flow as follows: Payback period = 3 + (15,000 * /40,000) = 3 + 0.375. = 3.375 Years.
What do you need to know about the Payback method?
Payback method. Under payback method, an investment project is accepted or rejected on the basis of payback period. Payback period means the period of time that a project requires to recover the money invested in it. It is mostly expressed in years.
Which is longer the payback period or the maximum?
The payback period for this project is 3.375 years which is longer than the maximum desired payback period of the management (3 years). The investment in this project is therefore not desirable.