Financial

DiscountCashFlows

The workhorse of a DCF: discounts a series of future cash flows to today and returns both the per-period present values and their total. Cash flows are assumed to start one period from now (the first value is discounted a full period), so wire in the forecast years only, not a period-0 outlay. If a TerminalValue is connected, it is added to the final cash flow before discounting, which is the standard treatment for a year-N terminal value.

Inputs

InputAcceptsRequired
CashFlowsSeries (a list of numbers)Yes
DiscountRateValue (a single number)Yes
TerminalValueValue (a single number)Yes

Outputs

OutputProduces
PresentValuesSeries (a list of numbers)
TotalPVValue (a single number)

Settings

Typed in on the node or set by the assistant, not wired.

SettingDefaultNotes
DiscountRate0.1Per-period discount rate as a decimal; wire WACC's result in, or type 0.1 for 10%. Default 0.1.

Example

A 5-year forecast from ForecastSeries ($5.0M growing 8% to $6.8M) discounted at a 10% WACC, with a $92.9M Gordon Growth terminal value wired into TerminalValue. Year 1's $5.0M is worth $4.55M today; year 5 carries the terminal value, so $99.7M discounts to $61.9M. TotalPV comes to roughly $79.6M: the enterprise value. Put TotalPV on a KPICard and the PresentValues series on a chart to show where the value sits.

Tips

Because every flow is discounted at least one period, an upfront investment does not belong in this series. Subtract it downstream, or use NPV, which treats its first value as period 0. Feed the same rate here and into TerminalValue from one WACC node so a rate change moves the whole model together.

Related nodes