Excel Tip: Calculating Straight-Line Depreciation

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By David Ringstrom, CPA

The SLN feature in Excel enables you to compute straight-line deprecation for an asset. The function has three arguments: Cost, Salvage, and Life.

Cost is the original cost of the item, Salvage is the proceeds you expect to receive upon disposal, while Life is the useful life of the asset specified in years.

Thus, SLN would return $1,000 for a $5,000 asset with a salvage value of zero and a five-year useful life.