CUMIPMT, CUMPRINC, IPMT, PMT, and PPMT functions return an error if SAS/ETS software is not licensed


Beginning in SAS® 9.2, support for the CUMIPMT, CUMPRINC, IPMT, PMT, and PPMT financial functions was moved from SAS/ETS® to Base SAS®. However, if any of these functions are run under SAS® Release 9.2 or higher on a system where SAS/ETS software is not installed, then the following error message is returned:

ERROR 68-185: The function xxxx is unknown or cannot be accessed.


where xxxx is the name of one of the aforementioned functions.

To circumvent the problem, use the FINANCE function and specify the name of the desired function as the initial "string-identifier" argument. Details on the FINANCE function are available in the SAS Functions and Call Routines: Reference (under Documentation ► Previous Versions ► SAS 9.3 ► DATA Step References).

The following example illustrates comparable specifications of the CUMPRINC and FINANCE functions to obtain the cumulative principle paid on a loan between two periods. The FINANCE function returns a value that is equal in magnitude but opposite in sign of the result returned by the CUMPRINC function.

CPrin1  = CUMPRINC (.09/12, 360, 125000, 13, 24, 0); 
CPrin2  = Finance('CUMPRINC',.09/12, 360, 125000, 13, 24, 0);


Similar syntax can be used with the FINANCE function to obtain comparable results to the CUMIPMT, IPMT, PMT, and PPMT functions.