Payback period schedule in financial modeling

Description
The payback period is the span of time a firm or project would need to generate or recover enough cash that equal its initial capital investment. It also represents a break even period in cash term to initial capital investment.


Here's a simple example:

Initial Investment: Let's say you invest $10,000 in a new machine for your business.
Cash Inflows: The machine generates additional earnings or cost savings for your business, let's say $2,000 per year.
Calculating Payback Period: The payback period would be the time it takes for the cumulative cash inflows to add up to the initial investment. So, in this example, it would take 5 years for the $2,000 annual cash inflows to add up to $10,000 (5 years * $2,000 per year = $10,000). 
So, in this simplified example, the payback period is 5 years. 


The shorter the payback period, the quicker you recover your initial investment in cash terms. 
It's important to note that while the payback period is a simple and intuitive metric, it doesn't consider the time value of money (the idea that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future due to inflation and the opportunity to earn a return on investment).