Using the HP-10B calculator for financial calculations
© Michael D. Kinsman
This is a brief guide to using the HP10B financial calculator. It does not replace your instruction
booklet, nor does it replace actually practicing with the calculator. In the materials below, BOLD
FACE indicates that you push a key with that label on your HP10B. # below indicates that you push
a number key on your HP10B. Sh indicates that you push the yellow-orange or green shift key.

I use the following convention when I do work on financial calculations: I treat cash flows I am receiving
as positive numbers. I treat cash flows I am paying out as negative numbers. To turn a positive
number into a negative number, enter the number on your keypad and press +/-.

General setting up of your calculator

To set the number of digits after the decimal point, press Sh = # where # is the number of digits you
want to display after the decimal point. For example, press Sh=2 to display 2 digits after the decimal.

To set cash flows to the beginning of period or the end of period, press Sh0.
“begin” mode and “end” mode.

This toggles between

To calculate financial functions

To enter the number of periods in a year, press # and Sh PMT(for example, enter 12Sh PMT for
monthly).

To calculate

Enter

1

Push for result

Future value

# N

# I/YR

# PMTand/or # PV

FV

Present value

# N

# I/YR

# PMTand/or # FV

PV

Interest rate

# N

# PMT and/or # PV2

# PMTand/or # FV3

I/YR

Annuity payment

# N

# I/YR

# PVor # FV

PMT

To amortize a loan , do the steps for annuity payment as shown above. Then enter # INPUT #
where the first # is the first period you want to amortize, and the second # is the end of the period you
want to amortize (for example, to do periods 7 to 10, 7 INPUT 10. Then press Sh AMORT. To get
the amount of interest you paid this period, press =. To get the amount of principal you paid this
period, press = again. To get the remaining balance of the loan after this period, press = again. To
do the next period, press Sh AMORT. If, at any period beginning, you want to amortize more than
one period (for example, if you had a 12 months of payments on your house loan after a short first
period of 5 payments), you’d press # INPUT # (in my example 6 INPUT 17) The first year would
amortize 5 months of the loan, and the second year would amortize 12 months of the loan. Then
follow the steps above starting with Sh AMORT.

To calculate IRR and NPV

For IRR and NPV , enter the cash flows, remembering the sign convention. To clear out previous
data, press Sh INPUT. To enter each flow, push # CFj, remembering Flow (0) is the flow at period
zero; Flow (1) is the first flow, etc. If the cash flow is repeated, enter the number of times it is repeated
# Sh CFj.

If you are calculating an NPV, enter your interest rate # I/YR followed by Sh NPV.

If you are calculating an IRR, enter Sh IRR.

1Remember to clear your calculator before beginning calculations by using Sh INPUT.

2Both PMTand PVshould be of the same sign.

3Both PMTand FVshould be of the same sign, and should be opposite the sign of those things
entered in footnote 2 above.