Accurate Loan Payoff Calculator™
What is a loan payoff amount?
The loan payoff amount is the unpaid principal balance plus all unpaid, accrued interest as of a specified date. The borrower must pay the payoff amount on the date decided in order to close the loan.
What is a loan payoff calculator?
A loan payoff calculator can track individual payments as of their actual date, including extra and under-payments, to calculate the current loan balance or payoff amount.
What is seller financing?
Seller financing, also known as owner financing, is when the seller of the asset (frequently a home) offers to finance the loan. Owner financing allows the buyer to borrow the funds, minus a down payment, directly from the seller.
What is an owner financing calculator?
The owner or buyer can calculate the current loan balance using an owner financing calculator to track individual payments on the actual date paid, including extra and underpayments.
The Accurate Loan Payoff Calculator makes the task of tracking an owner financing deal or calculating a payoff amount easy. Just watch the videos or follow the tutorial below to get started.
Recent changes and enhancements
- Jan. 10, 2024: Changed the default long and short-period interest options under "Settings." This means you will not get the same results you previously hadunless you reselect your preferred setting.
- 2023: Save any schedule's data to Word/docx orExcel/xlsx files. Click on "Schedule" then "Continue" past the title page.
- The calculator automatically sorts the cash flow prior to file save and calculation. This fixes the issue where the "Unknown" did not calculate due to overlapping dates in different cash flow series unless the user had clicked the "Expand" button.
Calculating a loan payoff amount is easy with this calculator. The calculator considers all on time late, missed and extra payments. It can also accommodate payment and interest rate changes.
- The Accurate Loan Payoff Calculator will do the job if you are searching for any of these calculators:
- loan repayment calculator
- mortgage payoff calculator
- student loan repayment calculator
- home loan repayment calculator
- car loan repayment calculator
- debt payoff calculator
- debt repayment calculator
- or any early loan payoff calculator
All users should work through the more detailed first tutorial to understand the this calculator's basic concepts and settings.
Seller or Owner Financing - A Step-by-Step Tutorial
Tutorial 25
To calculate a mortgage or loan balance and record payments as they are made, follow these steps:
- Set "Schedule Type" to "Loan"
- Or click the [Clear] button to clear any previous entries.
- Set "Rounding" to "Open balance — no adjustment" by clicking on {Settings} {Rounding Options}
- This setting is what allows you to enter single payments. Fig. 1
- Any other setting forces the calculator to adjust the final payment so the balance is zero
- Set the "Days Per Year" option to "360 Days Per Year" by clicking on the {Setting} {360 / 365 Days}
- In the header section, make the following settings:
- For "Calculate Method" select "Normal".
- Set "Initial Compounding" to "Monthly".
- Enter 5.25 for the "Initial Interest Rate".
- In row one of the cash flow input area, create a "Loan" series
- Set the "Date" to February 16
- Set the "Amount" to 5,250.00
- Set the "# Periods" to 1
- Note: Since the number of periods is 1, you will not be able to set a frequency. If a frequency is set, it will be cleared when you leave the row
- Frequently, the next step is to calculate the regular, periodic payment amount if you don't already know it. For this example, we'll assume that the payment has not yet been determined. If the payment has been agreed to, you can skip to step #8.
- The borrower has agreed to pay the loan back in 24 equal payments due at monthly intervals. What is the payment amount?
- Enter known payment details in second row
- Set the series to "Payment"
- Leave the "Date" set to March 16
- In the "Amount" column type "U" for "Unknown" Fig. 2
- Set the number of periods to 24
- Set Frequency to "Monthly". (The "End Date" will be February 16.)
- Your screen will now look like this:
- Click the "Calculate" button
- The expected, periodic payment is $230.91 Fig. 3
- Now we can start recording payments as they are received. Because we calculated the payment amount assuming 24 payments, we need to edit row #2:
- The 1st payment is received on time. Click on row #2
- Select "Payment" for the series
- Leave the date set to March 16
- In the "Amount" column enter $230.91
- Enter "1" for "# Periods" (recording 1 payment)
- Assume the next 3 payments are also received on the due date and for the amount due but you fell behind in recording them in the calculator. It is easy to catch up:
- Click on row 3
- Select "Payment" for the series
- Set the date to the April 16
- In the "Amount" column enter $230.91
- Enter a "3" under "# Periods"
- Your screen should now look like this Fig. 4:
- So far, all payments have been received for the amount due and on the due date. Let's check out the loan payoff amount after these 4 payments are made:
- Click on the "[Schedule]" button
- As of June 16, after the payment, the payoff amount is $4,412.77 Fig. 5
- The borrower is reliable and not only does he pay the 5th payment early, he also pays an extra $100.
- Normal payment plus an extra payment. To record this:
- Click on the fourth row. Set the series to "Payment"
- Set the date to "July 10"
- Set the "Amount" to $330.91. (Includes the extra $100.00.)
- Set the "# Periods" to 1
- So much for the debtor being reliable.
- Missed payment followed by under payment:
- Click on the fifth row. Set series to "Payment"
- Set the date to "September 16"
- Set the "Amount" to "$180.91"
- Set the "# Periods" to 1
- After making 4 regular payments, as well as one early payment with an extra $100.00 and making a payment that is short by $50.00, your cash flow data screen will look like this Fig. 6:
- Note: It is not necessary to enter a '0.00' for the missed payment. But it can be done as a matter of record keeping. Doing so, explicitly acknowledges that a payment was missed and it also forces the balance to be calculated on the payment schedule as of the date of the missed payment.
- Note: Interest is being calculated through August 16 and it is being added to the balance.
- Your borrower is in need of additional cash. You agree to lend it to them and add it to the loan balance.
- Add an additional loan
- Click on the empty row after the last payment. This will be row six
- Select "Loan" for the series Fig. 7
- You will make the funds available on October 1st. Enter October 1 in the Date column
- In the "Amount" column enter the new loan amount $1,000.00
- You are making one loan. Enter a "1" for "# Periods"
- Since there is a new loan amount, you want to calculate a new payment amount. Also, the borrower has agreed to pay the loan off in 18 more payments.
- Adjust payment due to new borrow
- Click on the empty row after loan just entered
- Select "Payment" for the Series
- The payments will continue to be due on the 16th of each month. Set the "Date" set to "October 16"
- In the "Amount" column type "U" for "Unknown".
- Set the "# Periods" to 18
- Set "Frequency" to "Monthly"
- Before clicking "Calculate", your screen will look like this if you've been following along:
- Click "[Calculate]"
- The new payment will be $286.78 Fig. 8
- Next, borrower pays the full payment amount, however he does pay two days late:
- Edit the payment in row 7.
- Leave "Series" set to "Payment
- Change the "Date" to "October 18"
- Since the full payment is paid, leave the amount as it is, $286.78
- Only one payment is being made. Change the "18" to "1" in the "# Periods" column
- Continue to enter payments (and loan advances) as they are received until the loan is paid off. Remember, you may enter "0.00" payment amounts on any date to calculate the payoff as of the date entered. Fig 9
- Next, borrower pays the full payment amount, however he does pay two days late:
- Edit the payment in row 7.
- Leave "Series" set to "Payment
- Change the "Date" to "October 18"
- Since the full payment is paid, leave the amount as it is, $286.78
- Only one payment is being made. Change the "18" to "1" in the "# Periods" column
- Calculate the unpaid principal balance as of any date:
- Assuming no payments are made after Oct. 18:
- Leave "Series" set to "Payment
- Change the "Date" to "January 1"
- Since we want the loan balance on a day when no payment is paid set the amount to$0.00 Fig. 10
- Click on [Schedule], the row for January 1 will show the loan balance, including the interest accrued since the Oct. 18th payment. Fig. 11
- Calculate the loan's payoff amount as of any date:
- Follow the steps in 17, but set the Jan. 1 amount to "Unknown".
- Change the rounding option to "Adjust last amount to reach a "0" balance"
- The calculator will calculate the payoff amount and the schedule will show a $0.00 balance.
- Of course the payoff amount will equal the loan balance (within the rounding adjustment) from 17 above.
- As you can see, you have two ways for looking at the same loan.
- Follow the steps in 17 and the schedule shows the balance as of Jan. 1.
- Follow the steps in 18 and the calculator calculates the pay off amount and the schedule shows a 0 balance.
If you have any questions about the Accurate Loan Payoff Calculator, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.
TValue is a trademmark of TimeValue Software.
Kelsey says:
Correction, first entry was correct. Subsequent entries are off.
Bank:
Date Balance Payment Principal Interest
11/1/2019$123,785.00
12/10/2019$122,480.61$2,164.10 $1,304.39 $859.71
1/6/2020 $119,823.08$3,246.15 $2,657.53 $588.62
3/16/2020$119,812.68$1,500.00 $10.40 $1,489.60
5/4/2020 $119,355.31$1,500.00 $457.37 $1,042.63
6/8/2020 $118,597.21$1,500.00 $758.10 $741.90
7/1/2020 $117,581.64$1,500.00 $1,015.57 $484.43
7/31/2020$116,708.10$1,500.00 $873.54 $626.46
8/31/2020$115,850.63$1,500.00 $857.47 $642.53
10/1/2020$114,988.45$1,500.00 $862.18 $637.82
10/30/2020$114,080.67$1,500.00 $907.78 $592.22
11/30/2020$113,208.73$1,500.00 $871.94 $628.06
1/13/2021$112,594.03$1,500.00 $614.70 $885.30
2/1/2021 $111,475.00$1,500.00 $1,119.03 $380.97
3/3/2021 $110,570.55$1,500.00 $904.45 $595.55
Calculator:
Date Payment Interest Principal Interest
11/01/20190.00 0.00 0.00 123,785.00
1:112/10/20192,164.10859.711,304.39122,480.61
2:101/06/20203,246.15588.912,657.24119,823.37
3:103/16/20201,500.001,493.696.31 119,817.06
4:105/04/20201,500.001,045.53454.47119,362.59
5:106/08/20201,500.00743.97756.03118,606.56
6:107/01/20201,500.00485.801,014.20117,592.36
7:107/31/20201,500.00628.23871.77116,720.59
8:108/31/20201,500.00644.36855.64115,864.95
9:110/01/20201,500.00639.64860.36115,004.59
10:110/30/20201,500.00593.93906.07114,098.52
11:111/30/20201,500.00629.89870.11113,228.41
12:201/13/20211,500.00887.21612.79112,615.62
13:202/01/20211,500.00381.041,118.96111,496.66
14:203/03/20211,500.00595.67904.33110,592.33
Karl says:
Glad you like the calculators.
The interest calculation goes out, as you pointed out, with the second payment. Once there’s a discrepancy, the 2 schedules will never match. This is because, interest is calculated on the balance, and the balance do not agree after the first payment.
Either, the bank has made an error in their calculation, or they are not calculating the interest as you describe.
Here’s the math behind the interest accrued as of the 2nd payment:
Balance – 122,480.61
Rate – 6.5% or 0.065/365 = 0.0001780 daily rate
Dec 10 – Jan. 6 is 27 days.
Thus 27 * 0.0001780 * 122,480.61 = 588.914 = $588.91
Which is the number the calculator calculates for interest with the 01/06/2020 payment.
I did look at the bank’s calculation, but could not figure out how they are coming up with 588.62. Are you sure they are using a rate based on days and not a monthly rate, i.e. 6.5%/12? I did not attempt that calculation because I did not know how they would account for the odd days.
The bank should be able to document their math. I would love to hear what they say.
Kelsey says:
I have discovered the issue. The problem occurs during a pay period that spans a year change that includes a regular year and a leap year. Part of the days should be calculated at 365 and part at 366. For example the payment made on 1/6/20 should be calculated as follows:
12/10-12/31
0.065/365*22 days*122480.61=479.86
PLUS
1/1-1/5
0.065/366*5 days*122480.61=108.76
Add those two together and you get $588.62. This would not be relevant if all payments made in the new year were always made on 1/1 but mine never are. If you make this correction, all the subsequent calculations are correct (except a few rounded pennies here and there) till you get the end of the leap year and have to make the correction again and then when more leap years occur. Not sure if this is normal practice and if your calculator would need the correction.
Karl says:
Thanks, Kelsey. I’ll take a look. I had thought of this possibility when replied, but I had done the math and came up with $588.56 somehow. I must have had a number transposed somewhere. I wish I had saved my work. 🙁
This will be a significant update. I’ll take a look over the next 30 days.
Concerning whether it’s normal practice, I had not run into it until recently, but some lenders do follow a 366 day leap year convention when the period spans a non-leap year/leap year.
Karl says:
Kelsey, I posted today an update to the calculator the supports 366-day years. I’ll send you a file that you drag and drop to load your example. The final balance differs from you bank example by one cent. If I trace the one cent back to where there is the first difference, I see it here:
Your example has $741.90 for the interest on June 8, 2020. However, this is the arithmetic:
prior period’s balance times daily rate 6.5/100/366 times number of days
= 119,355.31 * 0.0001775956 * 35 = 741.8943 or $741.89
Most likely, the bank’s calculation does not maintain the same degree of precision in the rate as this calculator does.
Bobby says:
Am I correct in assuming that the interest is calculated from the “principal balance” and not the “balance?” And, it seems that if a debtor misses a few payments and then pays some irregular partial payments, the payments are applied to interest first, and if additional interest is still due, it adds the interest to the principal balance. Is there a way to set up the calculator to calculate interest off the principal balance and apply payments to interest first (without ever adding any interest to the principal balance)? I assumed that this would have been the result when I selected the “simple” interest option. Thanks.
Karl says:
Assuming the calculation method is set to "Normal", interest is calculated on the loan balance as of some date based on the number of periods since the last interest calculation, added to the loan balance and then the payment is deducted. The loan balance is the loan balance. That is, if there is unpaid interest, then the loan balance will also include that interest.
It sounds to me as if you want to calculate interest on the principal balance only. That is, if there is unpaid interest, it will not be included in the next interest calculation. This calculation supports that. Set calculation method to "US Rule." US Rule means "no interest on interest."
If this is not what you need, please let me know. Or if it’s what you want, you can let me know that too. 🙂
Adam says:
(sorry if this appears twice)… I couldn’t find my other comment
I am trying to calculate daily interest based on US rule. I am getting error message “Error: Daily, continuous or no (“none”) compounding cannot be used with US Rule loans.”
Commercial loan says “total amount is calculated daily based on actual days and a 360 day year, at an interest rate of 8.75% per annum”
Based on some documents provided by lender – It appears that lender is calculating interest off of the amount of principal balance that remains unpaid. Interest is NOT added to principal. Late Fees are NOT added to principal. Other charges/costs ARE added to principal balance.
It appears interest is compounded daily
There have been late payments, and some months with multiple payments.
Trying to calculate.
Any help would be appreciated.
Karl says:
The U.S. Rule option means that interest will not be calculated on interest.
Daily compounding means that interest is calculated on the prior day’s interest.
Thus these two options, as the informational message indicates are mutually exclusive.
Since you want the interest basis to be daily, set the compounding to "Exact/Simple."
Mark WOELFLE says:
I have a 30 yr. loan with 20 years left on it ( $130,000 balance) at 3.875%. Thinking of going to either 15 yr. loan at 2.00% with no points or just paying down the principal 100.00 or 200.00 dollars each month to eliminate loan processing fees. I cant find a calculator that will show me the saving if i just pay down the principal. Current payment is 754.73 each month.what would be the more logical way to go in most cases. thanks
Karl says:
One way you can approach this is to use this calculator and create 2 different amortization schedules – one for each scenario that you describe. Then look at the end of the schedule and compare the total interest amounts paid under each paydown method.
Peggy says:
The Ultimate Loan Payoff Calculator seems to be exactly what I need! I don’t feel like my bank is properly calculating my monthly interest and was looking for a way to calculate interest based on the actual date of payment.
I don’t see how I can purchase and download this calculator. Please advise.
Thanks !!
Karl says:
The UFC will do what you want, as you have apparently discovered.
If you would rather have a Windows program with similar features, than please look at C-Value!. However, the online calculator is a bit more up to date, and unless you have a significant reason for wanting a Windows program rather than using the online calculator, I can’t think of why you would want to pay the $50 for C-Value!.
Richard says:
Great calculator Karl,
I hadn’t noticed any discussion regarding this. Can the calculator track late charges and their payments?
Thanks in advance for your response,
Richard
Karl says:
Thank you!
Yes, under series, the "Fee"e; can be used for late charges.
And payments are payments. If you want to track a payment to a late charge then add a comment to the payment, under "Cash Flow Options."
Does that work for you?
Robert Romero says:
If there is a change in Interest Rate due to a payment default can that be done here.
Robert Romero says:
Regarding The Rate Change, I was able to find it. I should have waited to ask until after playing with it a bit. What a great tool. I have been doing this semi-manually using an amortization calculator but it was so much work recalculating for the differing payments I was receiving.
Thanks so Much!
Karl says:
You’re quite welcome. And very glad to hear that using the calculator is better than doing the calculation "semi-manually." 🙂
James A Fivian says:
I have been using your tutorial to enter data on a personal loan I am Holding. I am unaware of how to download the program to my Mac. At this point I enter data and minimize the tutorial until the next payment is made. In the interim I must be very careful when using Safari or I will lose everything. That has happened frequently.
I see that recently you have notified us that the number of printings will be restricted for non registered users. How do I become a registered user? New tricks are hard on old dogs. Thanks
Karl says:
You can’t download it to your Mac. The calculator is a web calculator.
But you do not need to be careful using Safari either. Shut your computer off if you want to.
What you need to do first is click on the "File" then "Save as…." and this will give you the opportunity so save the data to a file on your disk that you can then open with the "File", "Open" menu choice.
Also, this calculator is not limited in anyway (presently).
Kathy says:
Hi Karl,
Is there a way to add a 5% late charge to delinquent installment payments in addition to the interest?
Thanks for your assistance.
Karl says:
Hi Kathy,
In the dropdown list under “Series,” one of the choices is “Fees.” Fees can be used to enter any charges that get added to the loan. The user can’t enter percentages, however. You’ll need to do the arithmetic and enter the amount.