Accurate Amortization Calculator
Create a printable amortization schedule, with dates and subtotals, to see how much principal and interest you'll pay over time. This calculator will calculate an uknown payment amount, loan amount, rate, or term.
What is an amortization schedule?
An amortization schedule is the loan report showing the amount paid each period and the portion allocated to principal and interest. The schedule will frequently also show the date the payment is due or paid and subtotals for each year.
How do I create an amortization schedule?
Create a printable amortization schedule with dates to see how much principal and interest you'll pay over time.
- Export to Excel/.xlsx and Word/.docx files.
- Calculate loan payment amount or other unknowns
- Supports 9 types of amortization.
- User can set loan closing date and first payment date independently.
- Automatically calculates prepaid interest
- Leave all inputs and setting set to their defaults, and:
- Enter the "Loan Amount."
- Enter the expected "Number of Payments."
- Set the anticipated closing date and first payment due date.
- Enter the anticipated "Annual Interest Rate."
- Set "Payment Amount" to "0."
(the unknown) - Click either "Calc" or "Print Preview".
That's it! That's all you need to do to create your schedule quickly.
But what if the terms of your loan do not conform to this calculator's default settings?
Then keep reading. I'll explain all the options below. More
Always enter (and reenter) a 0 for the unknown value.
Note - You must enter a zero if you want a value calculated.
Why?
Because we want this calculator to create a payment schedule using the loan terms you need. The payment amount can be whatever you want it to be. A payment is "correct" as long as both the lender and debtor agree on the amount! (If the calculator always recalculated the last unknown, then this feature would not be possible.)
TIP - Use an amortization schedule to confirm the periodic interest charges. Interest amounts are the calculations that borrowers should be validating.
Four values you will always need to set:
- Loan Amount - the amount borrowed, i.e., the principal amount. It does not include interest.
- Number of Payments (term) - the length of the loan. The "Payment Frequency" setting also impacts the loan's term. For a term of fifteen years, if the payment frequency is biweekly, you need to enter 390 for the number of payments. (390 biweekly payments = 15 years)
- Annual Interest Rate - the nominal interest rate. This the quoted interest rate for the loan.
- Payment Amount - the amount that is due on each payment due date. For "normal amortization," this includes principal and interest.
Set one of the above to 0 if unknown.
- How do I calculate how much I can borrow?
- set the loan amount to zero
- enter the number of payments
- enter the annual interest rate, and
- enter the expected or desired payment
- click "Calc" or "Print Preview"
- How do I calculate how long it will take to pay off a loan?
- enter the loan amount
- set the number of payments to zero
- enter the annual interest rate, and
- enter the expected or desired payment
- click "Calc" or "Print Preview"
- What interest rate allows me to pay $500 a month?
- enter the loan amount
- enter the number of payments
- set the annual interest rate to zero, and
- enter $500 for the payment amount
- click "Calc" or "Print Preview"
If you want an estimated schedule, you may skip over this section.
Which two dates are most critical to an accurate amortization schedule?
To Quickly
Pick a Date
If you want an accurate, to the penny amortization schedule - one that will correctly calculate stub period interest, you should spend a minute or two understanding these options.
- Loan Closing Date - the date the money is available. It is also known as the origination date, loan date, or start date.
- First Payment Due - for leases, it may be the same as the closing date; otherwise, payments will usually start sometime after the borrower has had access to the loan proceeds.
Important - Selecting dates will result in interest charges as well as payment calculations that do not match other calculators.
And that's the point!
However, if you want to match other calculators, then set the "Loan Date" and "First Payment Due" so that the time between them equals one full period as set by "Payment Frequency."
Example: If April 10th is the "Loan Date" and the "Payment Frequency" is "Monthly," then set the "First Payment Due" to May 10th, that is if you want an estimated interest calculation.
Four loan options you most likely don't need to touch.
- Payment Period or Frequency - how often do you want to schedule payments? The calculator supports 11 options, including biweekly, monthly, and semiannual (useful for bond coupon interest schedules). The schedule calculates the payment dates from the first payment due date (not the closing date).
- Compounding Period or Frequency - usually, the compounding frequency should be set to the same setting as the payment frequency. Doing so results in simple, periodic interest. Setting this option to "Exact/Simple" results in simple, exact day interest.
- Points - one point is one percent of the loan amount. Points are generally applicable to U.S. mortgages. More about loan schedules with points, fees, and APR support.
- Amortization Method - leave this setting set to "normal" unless you have a specific reason for setting it otherwise. For a complete explanation of these options, see Nine Loan Amortization Methods.
Five loan options you may want to tweak.
These options are available by clicking on "Settings."
- 360 / 365 / 366 - days-per-year option. This setting, also known as the day count convention, impacts interest calculations when you set compounding frequency to a day based frequency (daily, exact/simple or continuous) or when there are odd days caused by an initial irregular length period. The 366 days in year option applies to leap years, otherwise the interest calculation uses 365 days.
- Payment & Initial Period Interest Options - settings for how interest is shown on the schedule when the initial payment period (the time between the closing date and first payment date) is longer or shorter than the selected payment frequency. Click for more details and examples.
- Last Period Rounding Options - due to payment and interest rounding each pay period (for example, payment or interest might calculate to 345.0457, but a schedule will round the value to 345.05), almost all loan schedules need a final rounding adjustment to bring the balance to "0." A footnote on the payment schedule informs you of the rounding amount.
- Points, Charges, & APR Options - see loan schedules with points, fees, and APR support.
- Year-End Month - this setting establishes after what month the calculator shows year-end and running totals. This option is to accommodate businesses with fiscal year ends that do not coincide with the calendar year-end.
Printing the Payment Schedule
Printing will work from any type of device. It's pretty cool to print a well-formatted schedule from a smartphone that is connected wirelessly to a modern printer. (I've personally tested this using various iPhones printing to an HP LaserJet Pro printer.)
DO NOT USE THE PRINT SELECTION FROM YOUR BROWSER'S MENU.
Make sure you are printing from the "Print Preview..." window where there is a print button along with .docx and .xlsx buttons.
If you are using a modern browser, you can print to a PDF as well. For example, if you are using Chrome, click on the menu (the three verticle dots) and select "Print..." Click on the "Change..." button and select "Save as PDF." Other browsers will work similarly.
If you have any problems, please let me know what browser and version you are using. I can test various browsers, but unfortunately, I can't check too many printers (unless you plan to donate one to the cause!).
(Chrome, Edge and Firefox all have a "Save to PDF" option accessible from their print menus.)
How do I create Excel/xlsx or Word/docx amortization schedules?
From the "Print Preview" screen (after the title page) along with the print option, you'll be given the option to save the full amortization schedule to either an Excel/xlsx file or a Word/docx file. When exporting to Excel, the schedule is exported as data (no formatting). The dates and numbers are are represented in Excel as true dates and numbers and not text. The user can apply their own formatting as desired.
If you save to a Word/docx file, the amortization schedule is nicely formatted. You are free to add your own notes or to change the formatting, fonts and style as needed. Also, in my opinion, the Word amortization schedule is a bit prettier than the one you can print using the print button.
Beyond Basic Amortization Schedules
Hopefully, you'll find this to be a full-featured amortization calculator. If there's something you need, and it's not clear how to accomplish it, you may leave your question in the comments below
FRED ALEXANDER says:
Your suggestion of changing browsers worked with Google Chrome. I was able to print the schedule.
Thanks.
Fred Alexander
Karl says:
Good to hear. Thanks for letting me know. (But printing should work from Edge too, assuming it’s the current version of Edge.)
Steve B says:
The Settings for “initial period interest payment options” seem to need adjustment?
I tried doing a schedule for a loan with equal monthly payments of a given amount, and an initial short period of 1/2 month. Setting the radio button for “reduce first”, the result was a schedule with first payment HIGHER than the fixed given monthly payment.
Playing around, I found that setting the radio button for “no payment reduction” produced the schedule with the proper first payment.
Either I’m mixed up about definitions or the program is mixed up
Karl says:
I’m happy to look, but the details are important. Please provide all details about the loan, including the dates and how the compounding option is set.
One observation, if you set the payment amount to an amount that would not be enough to fully amortize the loan (bring the balance to 0 at the end of the term) then the payment for the short period would have to be higher than other payments because this calculator assumes the balance will be 0 at the end.
If you don’t necessarily want a 0 balance at the end, I’ll recommend a different calculator to you.
Steve B says:
Loan details – $119,597.72 available 31 December at 2.25% simple interest with fixed monthly payments of $990.02 due the 15th of each month beginning 15 Jan. Zero balance at end.
For the calculator, the number of payments is set to zero; and “reduce first” for the initial period option setting. The resulting first payment is $1,167.23, with 137 total payments.
Changing only the setting “reduce first” to “no payment reduction” corrects the first payment to $990.02
Karl says:
This is an interesting example. The key to my understanding of the problem was telling me that initially, the loan’s term was unknown.
The calculator is accurate. The problem is a lack of documentation.
When solving for a loan’s term, the calculator will never return a fractional period. After all, a lender will never quote the borrower a term of 180.5 payments, even if for the payment amount such a term is required to reach a 0 balance. Instead, one of the payments will be adjusted to eliminate the 1/2 period. Given that, the user should not, when solving for the term, set up an initial short (or long) period (that fact is missing from my documentation).
Let’s walk through your example.
Loan Amount: $119,597.72
Rate: 2.25%
Payment: $990.02
Loan Date: 12/15/2021 <-- note the change First Payment Date: 01/15/2022 The term is 137 payments. But, notice that regular payments of $990.02 are not large enough to reach a 0 balance. The final payment needs to be adjusted to $1,374.30. (This adjustment is made because the default setting for "Last Payment Rounding Options" is set to "Adjust last amount to reach "0" balance") The calculator could have also calculated a term of 138 periods (either is "correct"), and then the amount for the final 138th payment would have been less than $990.02. As the user, you can look at these numbers and pick whichever term you want! Now, to your specific case, that is, with the loan date set to 12/31/2021. My earlier statement is applicable here:
With the loan date adjusted to 12/31 and using a term of 137 payments of $990.02, the final payment is now $1,219.53 when the short period option is set to "No payment reduction."
The short and long period options are guidelines for the calculator. They are not absolute directives. And in your case, when you change the option to "Reduce first", this isn’t meaningful because the payments aren’t large enough, to begin with. What is happening is, when the option is selected, the first payment is adjusted rather than the last payment. The calculator won’t show an incorrect result and therefore it increases the first payment to make up for the shortfall in the regular periodic payment amount. After the first payment increase, the final payment is only adjusted by a penny, i.e. to $990.03. (It would be better if I called this option simply "Adjust first payment" rather than "Reduce first". But reduce first will be correct in probably 90% plus of cases because users will likely be using a normally calculated payment amount, which for your case with 137 equal, full-term payments would be $992.48.)
Term calculations can be confusing. I might add additional documentation, but I’m not sure how many people will read it.
Steve B says:
Wow! Thank you, sir, for sorting this out!
And before going any further I write a hearty thank you and expression of appreciation for making this powerful tool available.
You may be interested to learn that the challenge I was trying to meet is a re-amortization for a loan made 68 months ago, on which a major pre-payment of principal was made at year end, right in the middle of a payment period. Hence the oddball numbers, which conspired to become an exception.
I had gotten around the problem first by simply doing a manual computation for that initial payment, then using the calculator to produce the remaining eleven years or so of the amortization table. And then, as already stated, I played around with what was clearly a very sophisticated device until I blundered into a result much better than my patchwork solution.
I’m glad I raised the question anyway, and that it was of interest.
Karl says:
You’re welcome. I’m happy to hear that the information was useful. Thanks for letting me know.
You may be interested in trying this loan payoff calculator. It gives the user the ability to track payments on the date paid. Users can also save their entries to a file for later recall.
Tracy Eldridge says:
Great template. I’m trying to create a table with missed payments at different periods. How can I put zero in on the months missed?
Karl says:
Thank you.
You can’t. Not with this calculator.
But you can with this loan payoff calculator which will also create an amortization schedule for you.
Jerry Gibson says:
I like the way this layout is, except I need 2 additional things: (1) A way to change the payment date and/or amount or a way to add additional payment amount so the program will self re-calculate and come up with the correct figures. (2) A way to save the program so if next year I need to change any dates or amounts or add additional payments or dates I can edit where the changes need to be made.
Also it would be handy to have a print button so it could be printed out in pdf formant (or automatically convert xml to whatever format we need (like open office calc).
Also a way way to add at the top Seller and Buyer information (and anything else we want to add especially for installment sales), and a way at the bottom to show breakout of how loan amount was arrived at.
Once I figure out how to save this in pdf format (again, ) it it easy to put at the top Seller and Buyer info and at the bottom any additional notes pertaining to loan break out info. But if I have to make changes on future printouts, then I have to re-invent the wheel by re-typing all that header and footer info again. Is there a way to add to this existing program a way to do this. There was an answer to one question that said use another program that would let you add payments. However, when I looked at it, it left off the beginning info such as beginning date, beginning amount, payment amount, and other things this 1st program had.
As I mentioned, I like the format of this 1st program, it just didn’t go far enough to let us add additional amount or dates or edit what needs to be edited.
Karl says:
Thank you for your suggestions. I appreciate the time you spent on this.
As to your two requirements, I already have a calculator on this site that will fulfill them. Please see the Ultimate Financial Calculator. The UFC allows the user to enter any payment amount, as of any date into the schedule, and the schedule’s layout is the same.
If you try the calculator, check out the tutorials. There’s a link to them on the calculator’s page.
As to your other points, whenever you click on a calculator’s "Print Preview" button (or sometimes labeled "Payment Schedule" or similar), the window which opens will always have a print button in the top left corner and at the end of the schedule.
As to PDFs, all modern browsers (to my knowledge) will give the option to the user to print to PDF rather than the printer. Look at where you select your printer (after clicking print) and the dropdown should have PDF as an option.
As for saving your data for later recall, that’s what the "File" button is for.
The calculators also give the user the option to enter (and save) various items of metadata (though admittedly not all the data points that you want).
Christine says:
Instead of printing, why don’t you change your printer to “Save as .pdf” and it will save as a file to your hard drive.
Ariella Falkowski says:
Hi there,
I seem unable to save this file in a form that my computer can open. I have Excel, but it won’t open it in a readable format with the date properly inputted/displayed.
Can you help with this?
Thank you!
Karl says:
I’ll try. Are you using the file save feature? And you are then loading the saved XML file into Excel? How is the date begin shown? And how are you expecting it to be shown?
TJL says:
print function does not work, cannot save to pdf or print, please advise
Karl says:
How are you trying to print? Did you click on "Print Preview" fill in or skip the title page information and then click on one of the "Print" buttons?
If so, then can you print from other applications? My guess is, your printer driver has crashed and you’ll need to reboot. For if you followed the above steps, there should be no issues with printing.
T Landau says:
thank you – however, print buttons were not appearing. I had no trouble with any other printing, perhaps check into this….not sure why? I have since purchased the SolveIT! product and am now able to print.
However, I now have another question. I notice when I print my reports the author is the IT person at my firm. Is there a way to change this? Thanks again
Karl says:
Thank you for your purchase.
For the prepared by, click on "Preferences" in the menu at the top of the main window. Then select "Global Options." At the bottom of the window that opens is the "Prepared by" setting.
About not seeing the print buttons on the online calculator. They certainly should be there. I’m wondering what device you are using? Was it a mobile device and the print preview was too large to see all of it? Or if a desktop computer, do you have your fonts set to a larger size which may have pushed the buttons off-screen. Either way, I’m surprised you can’t see the button at the end of the schedule, in the bottom center.
T Landau says:
Prepared by worked! thanks
As far as the Printing…….I am working on a desktop. My font is a standard 10 or 12 point.
FYI I have used this calculator before, and never had an issue. Not sure what caused the change. But thank you for your thoughts.
Hlee says:
Hi there, please forgive me if this is a foolish question –
Yesterday 2/9/22 I created an amortization schedule with these inputs:
Loan amount: $788,081.13
Annual interest rate: 6%
Loan date: 3/1/22
Payment frequency: Biweekly
Periodic payment: $12,500
1st payment due: 4/1/22
When we generated the amortization the first line says:
#/Year Date Payment Interest Principal Balance
Loan: 3/1/22 2,235.88 2,235.88 0.00 788,081.13
The rest of the amortization makes sense. Can you please help me understand this line? It is not really a payment that we are receiving but it adds to the payment and interest column. Thank you!!!
Karl says:
I hope I can.
Per the dates you provided, you have what we call a long first period. That is, your payment frequency is biweekly, by the time between the loan date and the first payment date is a month. A long(er) first period creates odd days – March 1 to March 18. How should the interest for these odd days be collected? The calculator defaults to the loan’s origination date. However, the user has control over this. If you would rather see the odd day interest rolled into the first payment, click on "Settings," and then click on "Long/Short Period Options." Change the setting to "With first." Save the changes and recalculate.
The "None" option means the calculator will "forget" about these odd days – no interest will be calculated for them.
The "Amortize" option means that each payment will be increased slightly so that a little bit of the odd day interest will be rolled into each payment.
How’s that? Does that help?
Hlee says:
Perfect, thank you very much!
ravi says:
Hi,
May I know how the last installment is same as the other emi’s even we are going with actual/actual calculation, whats the calculation process
Karl says:
I don’t know that it’s the same. You didn’t provide all the necessary details including what the inputs are and how options are set.
Sorry, but I can only deal with specifics when someone is questioning an amount. Note though, the "Last Period Rounding Options" under "Settings" impacts the last payment calculation.
ravi says:
HI,
My calculations are done for below parametres :
IR12%
Date of Disbursement :2/25/2022
Loan amount :1,000,000.00
EMI start Date :3/25/2022
TENURE :24 months
COMPOUNDING : Exact/Simple
PAYMENT FREQUENCY : Monthly
AMORTIZATION METHOD : Normal
SETTINGS :366 (for leap years otherwise 365)
Rounding Options: Adjust last interest
My question is if am doing actuals / actuals am getting 2 scenarios :
1.Some left over balance in principal and getting uniform emi across all installments
( OR )
2.Last emi amount is different from actual emi and my principal balance is zero
If am using your calculator with above said specification like rounding off options am getting correct values , my emi is uniform even for last installment and principal balance is also becoming zero .
Kindly explain how it is working
Karl says:
"My question is…"
You actually didn’t ask any questions. 🙂 I don’t see a single question mark.
Are you trying the calculation yourself? And you are asking me why you are getting 2 different results? If that’s the question, I don’t know. You haven’t provided the details.
"Kindly explain how it is working"
What is "it"? The calculator? That’s a very general question and one that I can not take up here. Sorry.
Erica Osborne says:
Hello,
I’m looking for a calculator that the note is paid in say 108 payments but fully amortized over 360. is there a calculator that does that??
Karl says:
Hi, yes there is. That would be the balloon payment calculator. If this doesn’t do what you need, let me know what is not meeting your needs and there’s are other calculators on the site that should work for you.