BA II Plus Settings: Decimal Places, Reset, BGN and P/Y

A BA II Plus keeps its settings after you turn it off, which is helpful until a setting someone left behind quietly changes your answer. Four of them cause nearly all the trouble: the number of decimal places, the reset and clear keys, BGN or END, and P/Y. This page gives the keystrokes for each, plus what the calculator starts with after a reset.

What does the BA II Plus reset to?

These are the factory defaults, and what you get after a reset or a battery change.

Setting	Default after reset	Opened with
Decimal places (DEC)	2	2ND FORMAT
Angle units	DEG (degrees)	2ND FORMAT, down 1
Date format	US (mm-dd-yyyy)	2ND FORMAT, down 2
Number separators	US (1,000.00)	2ND FORMAT, down 3
Calculation method	Chn (chain)	2ND FORMAT, down 4
P/Y and C/Y	12 on the BA II Plus, 1 on the Professional	2ND P/Y
Payment timing	END	2ND BGN
Memories and worksheets	Cleared	2ND MEM

The two P/Y values catch people who own one model and study with a book written for the other. Texas Instruments changed the default to 1 on the Professional after finance professors asked for it. If you are not sure which you have, press 2ND P/Y and read the number.

How do you change the decimal places?

Press 2ND FORMAT. The DEC indicator appears with the number of places currently shown. Type the number you want and press ENTER.

1. 2ND
2. · FORMAT
3. · 9
4. · ENTER
5. · 2ND
6. · QUIT

DEC accepts 0 to 9. A 9 gives a floating decimal, which shows up to 10 digits and drops into scientific notation beyond that.

I would leave it on 9 while practising. A fixed two decimals hides the digits that tell you whether a rate is 6.5 or 6.499999, and it makes a correct answer look wrong when you compare it with a textbook that shows more places.

Changing DEC changes only what you see. The calculator stores 13 digits and rounds only for display, and TI states one exception: amortization and depreciation results are rounded internally. TI’s TVM notes add that BAL, PRN and INT are worked out from the payment rounded to the displayed number of decimal places, while FV uses the unrounded payment. If you are reading figures off an amortization schedule, raise DEC first so that rounding is finer.

What are the other FORMAT settings?

2ND FORMAT opens a short list. Each press of the down arrow moves to the next setting, and 2ND SET changes the one on screen.

Press	Setting	Choices
2ND FORMAT	DEC	0 to 9 decimal places, 9 for floating
down once	Angle units	DEG or RAD
down twice	Date format	US (mm-dd-yyyy) or Eur (dd-mm-yyyy)
down three times	Number separators	US (1,000.00) or Eur (1.000,00)
down four times	Calculation method	Chn or AOS

1. 2ND
2. · FORMAT
3. · ↓
4. · ↓
5. · ↓
6. · ↓
7. · 2ND
8. · SET
9. · 2ND
10. · QUIT

Chn solves in the order you type, so 3 + 2 × 4 gives 20. AOS does the multiplication first and gives 11.

The date format is the one that bites. If it is set to US and you key a European date, the calculator reads the day as a month, and a day above 12 is not a month, so you get an error. The error guide covers that case under Error 6. To put every format back to its default, open any format screen and press 2ND CLR WORK.

How do you reset a BA II Plus?

1. 2ND
2. · RESET
3. · ENTER

The display shows RST? and ENTER first. Press ENTER to confirm and you get RST and 0.00. Press 2ND QUIT instead to cancel.

A reset clears the display, all ten memories, any unfinished calculation and all worksheet data. It also restores the default settings in the table above and returns the calculator to standard mode. If an error message is showing, press CE|C first.

If the keys do not respond at all, there is a hard reset: push an unfolded paper clip gently into the small hole marked RESET on the back. Replacing the battery has the same effect as a reset, because the calculator cannot keep its data without power.

Which clear key do you need?

Press	What it clears	What it leaves alone
CE/C	A wrong entry, or an error message	Stored values
Backspace arrow	The last digit you typed	Everything else
2ND CLR TVM	N, I/Y, PV, PMT, FV	P/Y, C/Y, END or BGN, memories
2ND CLR WORK	The worksheet you are in, back to its defaults	Other worksheets
2ND QUIT	Pending operations, and leaves the worksheet for standard mode	All stored values
2ND MEM, then 2ND CLR WORK	All ten memories	Worksheets, settings
0 STO then a digit	That one memory	The other nine
2ND P/Y, then 2ND CLR WORK	P/Y and C/Y back to their defaults	TVM values
2ND BGN, then 2ND CLR WORK	Payment timing back to END	TVM values
2ND RESET ENTER	Everything, including settings	Nothing

Between two TVM problems, 2ND CLR TVM is the right choice. It clears the five registers and keeps your P/Y and decimal settings. Enter a 0 for any variable a problem does not use, as a forgotten value is a quiet source of answers that are close but wrong.

How do you switch between BGN and END?

1. 2ND
2. · BGN
3. · 2ND
4. · SET
5. · 2ND
6. · QUIT

Each 2ND SET flips between END and BGN. The BGN indicator shows at the top of the display while it is on.

END means each payment lands at the end of the period, which fits loans and mortgages. BGN means it lands at the start, which fits leases and annuities due. When BGN is on, the indicator appears; when it is off, nothing appears. A reset sets it back to END.

The setting belongs to the TVM worksheet, and the Texas Instruments guidebook states that it does not affect the Cash Flow worksheet. That is why a lease with payments at the start of each period has to be entered as an initial investment in the cash-flow list instead.

How do you set P/Y and C/Y?

P/Y is payments per year and C/Y is compounding periods per year. Setting P/Y also sets C/Y to the same number, so you only touch C/Y when the two differ.

1. 2ND
2. · P/Y
3. · 12
4. · ENTER
5. · ↓
6. · 4
7. · ENTER
8. · 2ND
9. · QUIT

Type P/Y and press ENTER. The down arrow shows C/Y, and by default it equals P/Y until you change it.

With P/Y at 12, N counts months and I/Y is read as a nominal annual rate divided by 12. Thirty years of monthly payments is therefore N = 360, not N = 30. Once set, P/Y and C/Y stay put until you reset the calculator or press 2ND CLR WORK on the P/Y screen. 2ND CLR TVM leaves them alone, which is why a setting from last week can still be there.

Make 2ND P/Y the first key you press on any new problem. It takes a second and removes one of the most common reasons an answer is far off. The interest conversion calculator shows how P/Y and C/Y change the effective rate.

How this site’s emulator differs

The emulator keeps the same key sequences, so everything above works the same way. A few starting points are different, on purpose:

• Decimals: it shows six places to begin with, not two. The decimal control beside the calculator changes it.
• P/Y and C/Y: both start at 1, not 12. That stops a hidden monthly setting from silently changing an annual problem. Set 2ND P/Y yourself when you want monthly, and it stays until you reset.
• FORMAT: the emulator’s 2ND FORMAT screen holds the decimal setting only. Angle units, date format and separators are not offered, and arithmetic always runs in AOS order.
• Clearing: one press of CE|C resets the whole device and keeps your decimal setting, and 2ND RESET resets without the RST? confirmation. On the hardware, CE|C clears the entry or error only.

If you practise here for an exam, check P/Y on the physical calculator before every problem, because depending on the model it may start at 12 rather than 1.

Settings and defaults on this page come from the Texas Instruments BA II Plus guidebook and TI’s support articles on P/Y and C/Y and on BGN, END, P/Y and C/Y. Verify a default against your own device’s manual if it differs.

Next step

With the settings right, most of the errors people blame on the hardware go away. If one still appears, the BA II Plus error message guide explains each code. For the full set of keystrokes, see the complete BA II Plus guide, and for practice on a loan or savings problem try the TVM calculator.