Feature Requests
It occurs to me that the blog format isn’t entirely conducive to conversations initiated by you folks out there in big wide world. If you’d like to see particular features implemented for the calculator, this page can be a home to those requests. Tack your comment onto this page for easy reference.
38 Responses to “Feature Requests”
By kbudnick on Jul 24, 2008
Hi, Brett-
I work in a call center that uses your amort calculator about a bazillion times a day. When we print we have to highlight and only print selection to get just one page- otherwise it prints with extra blank pages. A bazillion times 2 adds up to a lot of wasted trees and I am sure that not all of us are using the selection feature. Can you adjust your amort page to just print one sheet? Thanks for helping conserve if possible.
Kimberly
By Bret Whissel on Jul 25, 2008
Hi, Kimberly. The page-printing mechanism is a function of the web browser you’re using, not a function of the calculator itself. I will make what adjustments I can, but please let me know what browser you’re using (and which operating system) so that I can test changes (if I have a similar setup).
By Bret Whissel on Jul 31, 2008
Hi again, Kimberly. While I was testing out some minor calculator formatting changes on Internet Explorer, I saw the blank page behavior that you were describing. I don’t know how to get around this, since it’s something that IE does that my own browser (Firefox) does not do. If you have the option of using a different browser to print amortization schedules, then using Firefox will save paper.
I will still attempt to play around with things to see if I can make IE behave, but since I don’t do development in a Microsoft environment, it isn’t always easy.
By Linda R S on Aug 5, 2008
I can’t get the amortization schedule to print out at all. I never had any trouble with your old format.
Help!!!
Linda
By Bret Whissel on Aug 5, 2008
Hi, Linda. Can you tell me which browser and version, and operating system version you’re using? Printing is really a function of the browser, not the calculator itself, and I try to test things on several browsers, but I don’t have access to everything that’s out there.
By Chappin4tay on Aug 7, 2008
Bret, I love your calculator and use it all the time to analyze commercial real estate scenarios. One feature that would be convenient for me would be to have a debt constant tabulated in the Summary area. Could you make that happen? -Thanks
Kevin
By R Michael on Aug 11, 2008
Your amortization calculator helped me to meet a need for two friends in a used-car deal. Thanks for making this utility available.
By Bret Whissel on Aug 11, 2008
Hi, Kevin. I’ve added a calculation for a debt service constant to the summary calculations, expressed as a percentage. The value is adjusted if the loan is less than a full year, and the debt service constant is not calculated at all if there is a balloon payment as it’s unclear exactly how this case should be handled. (If any industry person wishes to contribute some guidance for how this value should be calculated in such a case, please let me know.)
By Bret Whissel on Aug 11, 2008
To R Michael: You’re welcome, and thanks for the props!
By Trailerman on Aug 13, 2008
Bret,
Can you add a date option so the date of the final payment shows (based on the loan start date)?
Thanks,
Michael
By Bret Whissel on Aug 13, 2008
Hi, Michael. See the FAQ, Question #12 for part of the answer.
With that said, I do now intend to make some major improvements to the calculator over time, including the ability to print dates. As this requires an overhaul of the user interface, I can’t say exactly when that will happen, but it’s on the docket.
By Trailerman on Aug 13, 2008
Bret, Thanks for the (very) quick response. I hope that when you make changes to the calculator I don’t lose the ability to solve for the term in months since that is what I use most and is so hard to find in an amortization schedule calculator. I like to have the interest and payment set as nice easy to remember numbers and to solve for the term (with an odd figure for the last payment only).
Thanks again,
Michael
By Bret Whissel on Aug 13, 2008
No problem, Michael. I don’t intend to remove features. The real challenge is to avoid adding too much complexity to the user interface (though some additional input will be required).
By thantorp on Aug 19, 2008
I have been using your calculator for years and it is nice to now be able to thank the creator of it. Thanks for a great tool. If you do any additions, the ability to have interest only payments for a time and then start the principal reduction after a set time would be nice. Thanks again. Your calculator makes my job much easier.
By Bret Whissel on Aug 19, 2008
You’re welcome, thantorp. I’ll keep your suggestion in mind as I consider improvements to the calculator.
By tzerrilla on Aug 20, 2008
Bret, thank you for the availability of your calculator. I was using it to figure amortization on a $ 300 million financing,
and it seemed to have trouble performing the calc; it appears to me (although I am probably wrong) that the threshhold for a principal amount is 21,474,836.48 Was trying for 300 million, 20 year, 40 payments, 5% money, no balloon payment. Please advise what I am doing wrong. Best regards, Tony
By tzerrilla on Aug 20, 2008
Bret, I meant a $ 30 million loan, not $ 300 million. Thank you. Tony
By Bret Whissel on Aug 20, 2008
Hi, Tony. Yes, there is an upper bound of about $21 million. The limit is imposed by the CPU’s native word size, which overflows when rounding to pennies around that point.
I have plans to do away with this limit, which requires using an “infinite-precision” library. All input, output and all the calculations will need to be re-written, so it’s not trivial. But when it’s done, we’ll be able to do amortizations of the national debt (if we were so inclined, and not prone to despair).
By rjhancock on Aug 26, 2008
You stated in your FAQ that you did not know how the US banks handled bi-weekly payments.
The only time the payments effect the principal is when it is either a bi-weekly amortization or a simple interest loan. Otherwise, splitting the payment in half and paying twice a month is the same as paying once a month to the bank. They treat it the same.
Most banks use either a monthly or annual re-amortization schedule.
By Bret Whissel on Aug 29, 2008
Hi, RJHancock. I appreciate the input. Do you work for a bank or other financial institution?
By Jeanine on Aug 30, 2008
Hello,
I have checked out several amortization schedules and I like yours the best.
Thank you for making that available to the general public for free. I am learning to create websites and I know how time consuming entering all the correct code is.
The only thing I would love to see (like Trailerman suggested above), would be a date field so I could see the final date when my home will be paid off without counting the lines (although you do have them divided in monthly segments).
Again, thanks so much!
By angelideet on Dec 30, 2008
Hi Bret!
I’m an FSU grad and I use your calculator all the time.
One feature I can’t find on any amortization calculator on the web is one that would calculate the number of payments and amount of interest saved if the borrower pays the following month’s principal with their monthly payment.
I used to work for a financial institution that had a program that could run that calculation, so I know it can be done.
Thanks!
By Bret Whissel on Jan 4, 2009
That’s an interesting idea, angelideet, but I’m not convinced it’s a generally useful calculation, though it may have a small bit of marketing appeal.
In the beginning of the loan, the principal may be a small amount compared to the interest portion of a payment, so paying the next month’s principal in advance does not pose too big an additional burden. But toward the end of the loan, the principal portion is substantially larger. In addition, since the principal portion is always changing, the payment amount under this acceleration scheme would be constantly changing as well. My feeling is that people would prefer to budget for some sort of fixed payment amount by which they may evaluate various acceleration plans.
Of course, one could always set up a spreadsheet to do the calculation you have suggested, if that’s useful to someone.
It’s great to hear from an FSU grad! Spring semester starts up on Tuesday.
By angelideet on Jan 5, 2009
Thanks for the answer, Bret.
I’d love to have a spreadsheet for this calculation and payoff date for that very reason. It would be helpful to see how large my payment will become while factoring in the early payoff date.
My situation may be unique, but I have an 80/20 loan and I plan to complete payments on the second early and then roll over my budgeted amount for the second mortgage just in time for those substantially larger principal payments.
I have been accelerating my payments this was for about four years and since the payment goes up about $1 per month, I’ve found that it’s pretty easy to budget for it.
Thanks for the note!
By JackieJoy on Jan 19, 2009
Hi Bret!
In using your amortization schedule I can’t seem to make it work for me because I just need the schedule printed with no balloon payment. I have the principal, interest rate, pymts per yr, no. of pymts, and what I want my payment too be and just need a schedule printed out for me. Is that possible? I tried just putting 1.00 in the balloon payment slot but thought there must be a better way. I’m borrowing from my mom and wanted a printed copy for each of us.
By Bret Whissel on Jan 22, 2009
Hi, Jackie. The calculator is designed to fill in whatever field has been left blank. If you fill in all the blanks and there’s nothing left but the balloon payment, it dutifully fills in that value given all the other data.
If you don’t want the balloon payment amount to be filled in, leave one of the other fields blank (like the payment amount field). If the payment amount turns out to be not what you expected, perhaps you might leave the interest rate field blank instead.
By shopnodeb on Feb 15, 2009
Hi Bret,
The calculator is designed to fill in whatever field has been left blank. Cant u omit one the fields??? or cant u show us the way how we can customize it..???
By Bret Whissel on Feb 15, 2009
I don’t understand your question, shopnodeb.
By jimsturdevant on Apr 2, 2009
Hi Bret:
Great calculator. Maybe you can help me with a problem? I need to figure out a amoritization schedule where the first payment is delayed for 3 months and a ballon is due at 84 months. The current schedule covers all of the other variables I need to deal with.
Keep up the great work!!
Thanks,
Jim
By Bret Whissel on Apr 3, 2009
Hi, Jim.
I don’t work in finance in any way, so I don’t know how the industry typically handles such scenarios as the one you’re suggesting. Also, the calculator has no provision for a delay in the payment schedule. However, with a minimal amount of additional calculation, it may be possible to make it work out.
One reasonable approach is to allow the accrued interest during the non-payment period to be added to the principal amount when regular payments begin. For the sake of example, let’s choose some round numbers for convenience: $12,000 loan at 6%. For monthly payments, the periodic interest rate might be 0.5% (6%/12 months).
Method One, Simple Interest: Before payments have begun, the monthly interest due on the outstanding principal is 0.5%×$12,000=$60 per month. If payments are to begin 3 months from the beginning of the loan, then 2 additional months have been added, so add $120 to the principal amount (e.g., $12,120), and run the amortization.
Method Two, Compound Interest: Should the lender require a compounded interest calculation, the math is slightly more complicated. The formula is P×(1+i)n, where P is the principal amount, i is the periodic interest rate (0.5% here) and n is the number of non-payment periods (2, in this case). Using our numbers, the new principal amount when payments begin is $12,120.30.
The lender may have even more creative ways of handling this payment moratorium stuff. Again, I’m no authority!
Best wishes,
Bret
By carolinesmith@netspace.net.au on May 20, 2009
Hi Bret
I am an accountant.
Just wondering if the calculator can accomodate the following situation;
I have a client with a 5 year Chattel Mortgage and repayments are made monthly. I have 2 balloon payments though. One payment made in month 4 and another at payment 60.
Many Thanks
Caroline
By Bret Whissel on May 20, 2009
Hi, Caroline. I’m sorry, but the calculator has not been designed to handle this particular case. I would think a well-designed spreadsheet would be the right tool for this problem.
Regards,
Bret
By Jack on Jun 3, 2009
Bret – My company uses your calculator exclusively and we think it is the best out there…well done! The only problem is that our competitors (other mortgage cos) are listed in the Google Ads. When we print the calculator results to a pdf and email them to a prospective client we’re unintentionally advertising for the competition! I know you like the income from the ads but is there a way that they can be excluded when printing? Thanks!
By Bret Whissel on Jun 3, 2009
Hi, Jack.
In fact, ads should be excluded from printing already. If you are using recent versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari, and if you are using the browser’s print function, ads should not be printed at all because a different style sheet is used.
It may be that you are using an older browser, or a browser that isn’t aware of stylesheets, or perhaps your browser is configured to ignore alternate stylesheets for printing. Or maybe you’re printing a screen capture rather than using your browser’s print function.
Bret
By dakotaslim on Oct 22, 2009
I love your calculator but I often find I’m taking out loans for very short periods of time such as 2-3 months. It would be nice if I could do calculations for less than one year.
By Bret Whissel on Oct 22, 2009
Hi, dakotaslim. You can do these calculations. In such cases, if the payments are to be monthly, then you still set the Payments per Year to be 12; or if weekly, set this box to 52, etc. The Number of Regular Payments does not have to run out to a full year, so if the loan is for 3 months, just enter 3 here. However, the periodic interest rate is calculated as if it’s a full year, so if the rate is entered as 6%, that’s assumed to be an annual rate with a 0.5% monthly periodic rate (for example), not a 6% interest over the 3 months of the loan.
By jimechols on Oct 26, 2009
Hi Bret, your calculator is a great tool and I use it often. With that in mind, any chance that a “date” column be added? This would make it easier to determine the payback date on a refinance. Thanks, Jim
By Bret Whissel on Oct 27, 2009
Hi, Jim. Dates may get added someday. For a more complete response, see the FAQ, question 12.
Bret