Re: [office-comment] ODFF: XIRR

[Sheldon Britton <sab_orion@verizon.net>]

(Copy)

Hello David,

While I will not regard myself as an expert in certain financial 
matters... having previously served on the National Standards Committee 
of a country in South America; and, having had some experience in the 
banking industry...  kindly permit me to make the following observation 
with regards to your email to Mr. Denis E. Hamilton:

Re: "The bad news is that it's hard to know how useful (and used) the 
financial functions are. Two of
       the Calc functions always return an error, and no-one complained 
(I've raised an issue now). I
       suspect that despite the huge effort of implementation, not many 
people find them useful, except
       for students doing assignments..."

With regards to the above referenced I respectfully beg to differ with 
you that this is "bad news" in that if one is to consider the current 
effects of the energy and food scenarios around the world with 
particular reference to the state of the economy of the United States of 
America then any financial and economic analyst can readily recognize 
the "values" (usefulness) of having access to the appropriate 
computerized analytical tools (in these cases - some of the appropriate 
Spread Sheet Applications now being talked about; and, for example - to 
be utilized during the completion of the valuation of certain industrial 
project in a particular country prior to the "/*ranking*/" of those 
projects.

Additionally, I am wondering if you have completely forgotten about "The 
Sarbanes-Oxley Act following the "ENRON" fiasco in the United States of 
America.

Re: "The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is mandatory. ALL organizations, 
large and small,
     MUST comply".

http://www.soxlaw.com/

The above mentioned therefore are scenarios in which the "usefulness" of 
the financial and economic functionalities being considered for 
integration may be demonstrated.

I hope that all find this observation meaningful and purposeful.

Kindest regards,

Sheldon A. Britton

David King wrote:
> Hi Dennis
>
>   
>> Can you recommend authoritative sources
>>     
>
> In short, I'm afraid not - there are many books about, but because I'm 
> not a 
> specialist I think it would be unwise for me to recommend. I found 
> mistakes in 
> one book... And many sources skirt around the detail.
>
> The good news is that we now have a pretty good understanding of what 
> the 
> financial functions actually do - and I think ODFF will nail it down so 
> that 
> future implementors can succeed (in a way that OOXML has not). The main 
> outstanding issue is probably the calendar systems, which David Wheeler 
> is 
> working on I think.
>
> The bad news is that it's hard to know how useful (and used) the 
> financial 
> functions are. Two of the Calc functions always return an error, and no-
> one 
> complained (I've raised an issue now). I suspect that despite the huge 
> effort 
> of implementation, not many people find them useful, except for students 
> doing 
> assignments. Personally, as things are at the moment, I'd often be more 
> inclined to go back to basic principles, so I could be sure of the 
> result...
>
>   
>> I'm concerned that we have authoritative subject-matter expertise for 
>>     
> citation and also comparison with what various programs do. 
>
> Agreed, a good point, but it's hard to find the right *international* 
> expertise. Or at least I've found it so. I think the financial functions 
> are 
> quite biased towards the US.
>
> We also have to remember that a spreadsheet is a general tool, and that 
> specialist software will always do more for that area. Like R and 
> statistics.
>
> Not sure it that helps at all...
>
> David
>