The two terms are related to «APR» and «APY,» which are both commonly used acronyms that describe the interest that an account pays. This figure is used to determine the exact interest to be accrued by not credited to your account, depending on the rate of compounding daily vs. It does not reflect the exact percentage return of your deposits on an annual basis annnual it does not take effect of compounding into account the APY does. If a savings account has a 2. The APY on an investment is the effective annual return on your balance, including the effect of compounding. You can calculate the APY of an account using the following formula, where m is the rate of compounding for daily or 12 for monthly :. This is because the APY uses the compounding schedule of the account in the equation. APR does not.