VDB

Quirk found

Category: Financial · Last tested 2026-09-01

Real compatibility results for the VDB function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.

Support matrix

Engine	Documented	Live-tested	Verdict
Excel (desktop)	Yes	No — documented only	n/a
Excel for the web	—	Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01)	Supported, behaves as documented
Google Sheets	Yes	Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-31)	Supported, behaves as documented
LibreOffice Calc	Yes	Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-08-31)	Quirk found

LibreOffice version history

We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when VDB’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.

LibreOffice version	Verdict	Tested
24.2.0.3	Quirk found	2026-08-31
24.8.7.2	Quirk found	2026-08-31
25.2.0.3	Quirk found	2026-08-31
25.8.7.3	Quirk found	2026-08-31

Why isn't VDB working in LibreOffice?

VDB exists in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3, but it is not a drop-in match for Excel — our executed tests found real behavioral differences (detailed in the test results on this page). If a formula that works in Excel or Google Sheets misbehaves in LibreOffice, compare your usage against the failing cases above before assuming your data is wrong.

Discovered quirks

=VDB(2400,300,-10,0,1) on LibreOffice Calc returned #VALUE!, but the documented/expected result is #NUM!.
Provenance
DERIVED, not quoted: Microsoft's VDB page states 'All arguments except no_switch must be positive numbers' but does not name the error code. #NUM! is Excel's documented error for an out-of-domain argument across the rest of the depreciation family (DB, DDB, SLN, SYD all document #NUM! for a negative life), so #NUM! is what is asserted here; MISMATCH vs expected: expected '#NUM!', got '#VALUE!'

Executed test cases

Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)

These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,10,0,1),2)	Microsoft's documented example: first year's depreciation of a $2,400 asset with a 10-year life	480	480 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $480.00. Derived from the default double-declining factor of 2: 2400 * 2/10 = 480 for the first full period, which still exceeds the straight-line alternative so no switch occurs	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,120,6,18),2)	Documented example: depreciation between the 6th and 18th month of a 120-month life	396.31	396.31 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $396.31. Independently derived by accumulating the double-declining amount month by month (rate 2/120), summing months 6 through 17 -> 396.30605	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,120,6,18,1.5),2)	Documented example: the same span with an explicit 1.5 declining-balance factor	311.81	311.81 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $311.81. Same month-by-month accumulation with rate 1.5/120 -> 311.80894	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,10,0,0.875,1.5),2)	Documented example: a fractional end_period, where the period's depreciation is prorated	315	315 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $315.00. The first period's depreciation at factor 1.5 is 24001.5/10 = 360, and 0.875 of that period is 3600.875 = 315 exactly	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(1000,0,5,3,5,2,TRUE),2)	DIVERGENCE PROBE: no_switch TRUE suppresses the straight-line crossover in the late periods	138.24	138.24 Provenance Derived from the documented algorithm. Book values after three double-declining periods (rate 0.4) are 1000 -> 600 -> 360 -> 216. With no_switch TRUE periods 4 and 5 stay on declining balance: 2160.4 = 86.4 and 129.60.4 = 51.84, totalling 138.24. With the default no_switch FALSE the same call switches to straight line and totals 216.00, so this case pins down whether the flag is honoured	Matched
=VDB(2400,300,-10,0,1)	A negative life is outside the documented domain	#NUM!	#NUM! Provenance DERIVED, not quoted: Microsoft's VDB page states 'All arguments except no_switch must be positive numbers' but does not name the error code. #NUM! is Excel's documented error for an out-of-domain argument across the rest of the depreciation family (DB, DDB, SLN, SYD all document #NUM! for a negative life), so #NUM! is what is asserted here	Matched

Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-31 via Drive import)

Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,10,0,1),2)	Microsoft's documented example: first year's depreciation of a $2,400 asset with a 10-year life	480	480 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $480.00. Derived from the default double-declining factor of 2: 2400 * 2/10 = 480 for the first full period, which still exceeds the straight-line alternative so no switch occurs	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,120,6,18),2)	Documented example: depreciation between the 6th and 18th month of a 120-month life	396.31	396.31 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $396.31. Independently derived by accumulating the double-declining amount month by month (rate 2/120), summing months 6 through 17 -> 396.30605	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,120,6,18,1.5),2)	Documented example: the same span with an explicit 1.5 declining-balance factor	311.81	311.81 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $311.81. Same month-by-month accumulation with rate 1.5/120 -> 311.80894	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,10,0,0.875,1.5),2)	Documented example: a fractional end_period, where the period's depreciation is prorated	315	315 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $315.00. The first period's depreciation at factor 1.5 is 24001.5/10 = 360, and 0.875 of that period is 3600.875 = 315 exactly	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(1000,0,5,3,5,2,TRUE),2)	DIVERGENCE PROBE: no_switch TRUE suppresses the straight-line crossover in the late periods	138.24	138.24 Provenance Derived from the documented algorithm. Book values after three double-declining periods (rate 0.4) are 1000 -> 600 -> 360 -> 216. With no_switch TRUE periods 4 and 5 stay on declining balance: 2160.4 = 86.4 and 129.60.4 = 51.84, totalling 138.24. With the default no_switch FALSE the same call switches to straight line and totals 216.00, so this case pins down whether the flag is honoured	Matched
=VDB(2400,300,-10,0,1)	A negative life is outside the documented domain	#NUM!	#NUM! Provenance DERIVED, not quoted: Microsoft's VDB page states 'All arguments except no_switch must be positive numbers' but does not name the error code. #NUM! is Excel's documented error for an out-of-domain argument across the rest of the depreciation family (DB, DDB, SLN, SYD all document #NUM! for a negative life), so #NUM! is what is asserted here	Matched

LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-31)

Formula	Description	Result	Expected	Verdict
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,10,0,1),2)	Microsoft's documented example: first year's depreciation of a $2,400 asset with a 10-year life	480	480 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $480.00. Derived from the default double-declining factor of 2: 2400 * 2/10 = 480 for the first full period, which still exceeds the straight-line alternative so no switch occurs	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,120,6,18),2)	Documented example: depreciation between the 6th and 18th month of a 120-month life	396.31	396.31 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $396.31. Independently derived by accumulating the double-declining amount month by month (rate 2/120), summing months 6 through 17 -> 396.30605	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,120,6,18,1.5),2)	Documented example: the same span with an explicit 1.5 declining-balance factor	311.81	311.81 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $311.81. Same month-by-month accumulation with rate 1.5/120 -> 311.80894	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(2400,300,10,0,0.875,1.5),2)	Documented example: a fractional end_period, where the period's depreciation is prorated	315	315 Provenance Excel documents this example's result as $315.00. The first period's depreciation at factor 1.5 is 24001.5/10 = 360, and 0.875 of that period is 3600.875 = 315 exactly	Matched
=ROUND(VDB(1000,0,5,3,5,2,TRUE),2)	DIVERGENCE PROBE: no_switch TRUE suppresses the straight-line crossover in the late periods	138.24	138.24 Provenance Derived from the documented algorithm. Book values after three double-declining periods (rate 0.4) are 1000 -> 600 -> 360 -> 216. With no_switch TRUE periods 4 and 5 stay on declining balance: 2160.4 = 86.4 and 129.60.4 = 51.84, totalling 138.24. With the default no_switch FALSE the same call switches to straight line and totals 216.00, so this case pins down whether the flag is honoured	Matched
=VDB(2400,300,-10,0,1)	A negative life is outside the documented domain	#VALUE!	#NUM! Provenance DERIVED, not quoted: Microsoft's VDB page states 'All arguments except no_switch must be positive numbers' but does not name the error code. #NUM! is Excel's documented error for an out-of-domain argument across the rest of the depreciation family (DB, DDB, SLN, SYD all document #NUM! for a negative life), so #NUM! is what is asserted here	Mismatch

Docs & syntax

Excel (desktop): official documentation
Google Sheets: official documentation
LibreOffice Calc: official documentation

Where VDB behaves differently

Every error code LibreOffice reports as #VALUE!
Across our 2,334-case executed corpus, 272 cases in 135 functions return #VALUE! in LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 where Microsoft documents #NUM! (244), #N/A (15), #DIV/0! (10) or #REF! (3). Google Sheets returns the documented code on 239 of the 249 it has a function for. Identical in all four LibreOffice builds tested.