A to Z of Excel Functions: The RECEIVED Function

Welcome back to our regular A to Z of Excel Functions blog.  Today we look at the RECEIVED function.

The RECEIVED function

When you invest in a coupon bond, that is a bond that pays interest before maturity, you can evaluate your investment more accurately if you can make certain calculations.  To find the amount you should receive at maturity for a fully invested security, you can use the RECEIVED function. 

The RECEIVED function employs the following syntax to operate:

The RECEIVED function has the following arguments:

• settlement: this is required and represents the security's settlement date.  The security settlement date is the date afterthe issue date when the security is traded to the buyer
• maturity: this is also required and is the security's maturity date, i.e. when the security expires
• investment: this is required too, and is the amount invested in the security
• discount: also required, this is the security’s discount rate
• basis: the type of day count basis to use.  This is optional.  There are five options:

It should be further noted that:

• Microsoft Excel stores dates as sequential serial numbers so they can be used in calculations. By default, January 1, 1900 is serial number 1, and January 1, 2008 is serial number 39448 because it is 39,448 days after January 1, 1900
• dates should be entered using the DATE function, or as results of other formulae or functions.  For example, use =DATE(2024,2,29) for the 29^th of February, 2024.  Problems may occur if dates are entered as text
• the settlement date is the date a buyer purchases a coupon, such as a bond.  The maturity date is the date when a coupon expires.  For example, suppose a 30-year bond is issued on January 1, 2008, and is purchased by a buyer six [6] months later.  The issue date would be January 1, 2008, the settlement date would be July 1, 2008, and the maturity date would be January 1, 2038, 30 years after the January 1, 2008, issue date
• settlement, maturity and basis are truncated to integers
• if settlement or maturity is not a valid date, RECEIVED returns the #VALUE! error value
• if basis < 0 or if basis > 4, RECEIVED returns the #NUM! error value
• if settlement ≥ maturity, RECEIVED returns the #NUM! error value.

RECEIVED is calculated as follows:

where:

• DIM = number of days from issue to maturity
• B = number of days in a year, depending upon the basis.

Please see my example below: 

We’ll continue our A to Z of Excel Functions soon.  Keep checking back – there’s a new blog post every business day.  A full page of the function articles can be found here.