Displaying a Number as Years and Months

Robert has a formula that determines the payback period for certain investments. For instance, with $20,000 investment in energy-savings equipment and an annual energy savings of $3000, the simplistic payback period to recoup the investment is 6.6667 years. Robert wonders how he can make this payback period (6.6667) show as years and months instead of as a decimal number.

This can be done by simply multiplying the portion of the answer at the right of the decimal point by 12, which results in a number of months. Here is one way to get the desired result, assuming that the payback result is in cell A1:

=INT(A1) & " years / " & ROUNDUP((A1-INT(A1))*12,0) & " months"

With the value 6.6667 in cell A1, the formula would return "6 years / 8 months".

If you are using Microsoft 365, you also have access to the LET function. Using this you can make your formula more complex, but it ends up being more versatile. Here's an example:

=LET(A, ROUNDUP(A1*12,0)/12, Y, INT(A), M, ROUNDUP((A-Y)*12,0),
Y & IF(Y=1, " year", " years") & IF(M=0, " exactly", " / " &
M & IF(M=1, " month"," months")))

Even though I've shown the formula on three lines here, remember that it is a single, long formula. The LET function allow you to define variables that can be used in your formula. In this case, the pertinent variables being defined are Y (the number of years) and M (the number of months). The formula returns, in Robert's case, "6 years / 8 months" (just like the earlier formula), but it really shines if the number of months is 0 or 1. If it is 0, then the formula returns something like "6 years exactly", and if the number of months is 1, then it would return something like "6 years / 1 month" (note the lack of plural "months"). If will even handle "year" and "years" correctly.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12485) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Displaying a Number as Years and Months.