The company can purchase new planning software for $3,600. The software (asset) has a two-year life, will produce a savings of $600 in the first year and $4,200 in the second year. The discount rate is 15%. Calculate the project's payback and discounted payback period assuming steady cash flows. Also calculate the project's NPV and IRR. Should the project be funded? In light of the previous information provided, is the 15% discount rate justified. Explain your answer.

Concept Check: Payback analysis is the first step in project evaluation. The calculation enables you to understand if you can simply cover the investment within a certain time period. When doing Discounted Payback analysis or NPV analysis, a discounting rate is used to reduce future cash flows to a present value. The discount rate can be determined in many ways; existing cost of capital, projected cost of capital, desired return rate, etc as long as you justify what you wish to use for discounting cash flows and are consistent in your application evaluation will be easier.

Helpful Hint: IRR is discovered when you calculate an NPV where the result is zero (or as close to zero as you can get); this is an iterative process of adjusting the discount rate until you arrive at zero for an NPV. The best thing to do is first calculate NPV and see how far away from zero you are – you can then increase or decrease the discount rate until your NPV = zero.