Ultimate Financial Calculator
Calculate any unknown for regular & irregular cash flows. Create printable reports with dates for loans or investments. Solve for:
- Present Value (PV)
- Future Value (FV)
- Payment amount, rate or term
- Annualized rate-of-return
- Penny perfect payoff amounts
What is the Ultimate Financial Calculator?
The Ultimate Financial Calculator (UFC) is the most sophisticated, most flexible calculator on AccurateCalculators.com and I think on the entire internet.
If you are someone who needs date accurate time value of money calculations for either regular or irregular cash flows (loans, payments, deposits, withdrawals, investments), this is the calculator you should study and use.
See the tutorials for step-by-step guides.
Questions?
Feel free to post your questions, comments or concerns at the bottom of this page. Remember, I'm here to help. There's a lot more below
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 had unless you reselect your preferred setting.
- 2023: Save any schedule's data to Word/docx or Excel/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.
Calculator's Features
Solve for any unknown
- Payment or loan amount
- Deposit or withdrawal
- Yields: APR, APY or IRR
- Balance as of a specific date
- Present value (PV)
- Future value (FV)
- Balloon payment amount
- Payment required to reach a specific balloon
- Number of payments
- Discounted values
- Remaining balance
- Deposit required
Any type of calculation method
- Normal amortization or investment
- Rule-of-78s
- Canadian methods
- U.S. Rule — simple interest
- Supports 360, 364, 365 and 366 day years*
- Exact day or periodic interest calculations
Scheduled (but adjustable) Payment Frequencies
- Daily
- Weekly
- Bi-weekly
- Twice monthly (Half-month)
- Every 4 weeks
- Monthly
- Bi-monthly (every two months)
- Quarterly
- Every 4 months
- Semi-annual
- Annual
Flexible Reports & Schedules
- Amortization & investment schedules
- Select a fiscal year end
- Reg. Z APR disclosure calculation
- Track or keep an "Open Balance"
- Track escrow payments and disbursements
Handles any type of cash flow
- Normal
- Interest-only
- Enter your own payment amount
- Negative amortization
- Skipped payments or deposits
- Fixed principal + interest
- Percent step amounts
- Dollar step amounts
- Balloon payments
- Extra payments — principal only
- Payments to interest
- Cash flow amounts set to any random date
Compounding Frequencies
- Exact Day / Simple
- Daily compounding
- Weekly
- Bi-weekly
- Twice Monthly (Half-month)
- Every 4 Weeks
- Monthly
- Bi-monthly (every two months)
- Quarterly
- Every 4 Months
- Semi-annual
- Annual
- Continuous
- Change the frequency of compounding during a cash flow
- No compounding option when rate changes
*What are 360, 364, 365 and 366 day years?
The days-per-year option impacts interest rate calculations. The calculation divides the nominal annual rate by 360 for equal length periods, 365 for actual length periods, and 366 if a leap year. Advanced calculators, such as the Ultimate Financial Calculator, give the user the ability to select the days-in-year. You will see the impact to interest when there are odd days (that is, irregular periods), or when compounding is set to daily or exact. Many other calculators on this site support this option.
Calculators the Ultimate Financial Calculator Replaces
With this calculator's flexibility, it will meet the needs of anyone searching for:
- loan repayment calculator
- loan payoff calculator
- mortgage payoff calculator
- repayment calculator
- student loan repayment calculator
- home loan repayment calculator
- car loan repayment calculator
- debt payoff calculator
- early mortgage payoff calculator
- debt repayment calculator
- individual or specialty TVM calculators
Tell us how you use the Ultimate Financial Calculator. And naturally, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them below.
L P says:
Hi – this is great, thanks for it! How do I build in tax impact if I am doing a calculation of deposits and withdrawals for retirement?
Karl says:
You’re welcome. The UFC is really for auditing purposes. It’s design for exact date cash flows and it does not consider taxes.
However, this investment calculator does.
LP says:
Thanks!
Erica Osborne says:
I have a note where the principal is $225,000.00 amortized over 72 months. Interest is 7.5% for the first 5 years and then 10% for the remaining year. Please help 🙂
Erica Osborne says:
Never mind! I figured it out!! 🙂 Super easy tutorials!!
Karl says:
🙂
Maggie Watts says:
I am trying to set up a loan with irregular payments and payment amounts. How do I do that in the cavalue program. I don’t seem to get anything but to set a loan value
Karl says:
The way you go about it will vary a bit depending on how irregular the payments are. If they are completely random, then what you’ll need to do is enter the first row as a loan amount, and then each following row will be a payment with a date and an amount.
For for more detail instructions, and another copy of this calculator, please see this page.
If you have, say 6 regular payments, followed by 1 single payment with a different amount followed by 6 more regular payments, then enter the first row as the loan, followed by a payment row with 6 in the "# Periods" column, followed by the single payment on the irregular date with or without an irregular amount, followed by 6 payments again.
If this isn’t clear, please ask again.
Lp says:
Hi, I am trying to do a savings calculation where I have a monthly deposit that increases by 2 percent every 12 months, and then a yearly deposit that increased by a fixed amount each year. For some reason, when I make the cash flow adjustment for the annual deposit, it converts that deposit frequency to a monthly deposit even though the calculator input still shows I selected “annual” for frequency.
Karl says:
You are right. Something is wrong. It seems that it is not possible to have two different series where one uses a percentage step and the other uses an amount step.
I’ll try to have a fix for this by Feb. 1.
Sorry for the problem.
lp says:
Not a problem at all, appreciate it, thanks for letting me know!
JB says:
Hi, I have a loan where there is a 9 month grace period between the date the loan was made and the first payment. When I enter the loan and payment information, the amortization schedule is showing a negative principal payment for the first payment to offset the interest that accrued during the first 9 months. Any recommendations on how to adjust the schedule?
Karl says:
Yes. I assume you want to see a larger first payment to allow for the accrued interest?
Click on the settings button and select "Interest Options" At the top of the window that opens, you’ll see "If initial cash flow period is longer than the payment frequency:" with 4 options. Select "With First"
But, in confirming the steps for this answer, I see there is a bug in the calculation. The long period setting are only working if there is also at least one odd day’s interest. If you mean exactly 9 months, say April 1 to Jan 1, 2021, then the calculation is not adjusting the first payment. Please set the first date to March 31. Then it works.
If you want it to be exactly 9 months (this is assuming your payments are on a monthly schedule) then set up the screen with 3 rows. 1 loan row, followed by 1 payment row and then the 3rd row with the payment series. You can do some math based on the earlier schedule you mention to enter the payment amount for the 1st payment and then create the schedule.If this is not clear, let me know and I’ll give you an example.
JB says:
Thank you for the quick response. No, the first payment would not be larger than the other payments. It ends up being a 60 month loan paid over 51 months in equal installments.
JB says:
Thank you for the quick response. No, the first payment would not be larger than the other payments. It ends up being a 60 month loan paid over 51 months in equal installments.
Karl says:
Oh, in that case there is no problem. The schedule is accurate.
For example, when this calculator first loads, as of today, it shows a loan row for $250,000 taken out on April 1 and a payment row with an unknown payment amount for 180 payments and a payment due on May 1.
You want the first payment due 9 months after the loan. So change the date to Jan 1, 2021. Can click Calc (or schedule).
The monthly payment is calculated to be $2,311.10. The payment is the same for all 179 payments, including the first payment. The 180th payment is round by $0.31.
However, note, the interest between April 1, 2020 and Jan 1, 2021 is $15,742.96. That’s a mathematical fact. But since the payment is only $2,311.10, the payment does not cover the interest and it’s added back to the loan balance (negative principal). In other words, by the time the first payment is paid, the loan balance (due to accrued interest) is greater then when the loan was taken out on April 1, 2020.
If you want to track accrued interest as a separate balance, that can be done.
Set the "Calculate Method" to "US Rule."
David says:
Hi Karl
Thanks for the work done with this UFC calculator and others. I keep coming back to them time and again.
One of the reasons I use it is because leasing companies don’t always provide up front schedules and then charge to get an extra statement!! Particularly when I want to get in front with my book work. 🙂
One of my leasing companies is doing something a little bit different and the calculator is not quite matching. See how you go. Thanks in anticipation of a brilliant solution. David.
=Scenario=
Vehicle Loan = $56,409 (includes all other fees) @ 4.9500% over 60months but paid at $494.52 biweekly (fortnightly).
Monthly admin fee of $8.25 charged to account.
Question 1: When the monthly admin fee is applied it is not added to the principal and then extra interest calculated but the principal component of the next fortnightly pmt is reduced by that admin fee. Can this be accommodated by the calculator?
Question 2: The calculator calculates the first Interest & Principal paid exactly. However, from then on the Interest calculated is consistently higher by up to $0.17 each repayment when compared to the leasing company’s statement. Where’s the best place to correct this?
Karl says:
Hi David, I’m happy to hear that you’ve found the calculators to be useful.
I’m not sure that I understand exactly the term that you’ve outlined. And when it comes to a 0.17 difference, the details of the terms are important!
But a few thoughts, the term of the loan is quoted in the number of months and the payments are scheduled every other week. What’s the compounding frequency?
It seems to me that the monthly admin fee either is or isn’t being added to the balance. It would be easier to duplicate the calculation if we knew the answer to this question. Can the lender document this for you? Basically, the admin fee has me confused.
David says:
Hi Karl
Please find below in CSV format the first 6 transactions as taken from the Statement of Account, which are representative of the cycle. Hopefully this might help.
From my understanding of the contract the compounding frequency is monthly. I did try biweekly but that appeared to make the discrepancy worse.
Regards
David
Date, TRXN, PmtRcvd, Interest, Principal, PrincipalBalance, DebitFees, CreditFees
10/09/19, O/Bal, -, -, -, $56409.99, -, –
20/09/19, Pmt, $494.52, $76.50, $418.02, $55990.98, -, –
04/10/19, Pmt, $494.52, $106.31, $388.21, $55602.77, -, –
10/10/19, AdminFee, -, -, -, $55602.77, $8.25, –
18/10/19, Pmt, $494.52, $105.57, $380.70, $55222.07, -, $8.25
01/11/19, Pmt, $494.52, $104.85, $389.67, $54832.40, -, –
Karl says:
David, I can’t even get the first interest payment to match. By my calculation, it should be about $1.00 more, depending on the compounding selected. What settings to you pick to match interest rates?
David says:
Karl, I set the days per year to 365. That gets the first TRXN to be exact.
I don’t understand the 360days option – are there days in the year that interest is not calculated on?
Regards David
Karl says:
There are so many (necessary) options, I forgot to try a different days-per-year setting.
(Note to users: if you want me to help understand a calculation, I will be happy to do so, but please let me know of any changes to the options you make.)
David, no, unfortunately, unless the lender is a relative, interest is accrued for every day of the year. The day-per-year option is used for calculating the daily interest rate. The annual rate is divided by either 360 or 365 days. The 360-day option came about with the rationale that a year would be divided by 12 equal months of 30 days each. It also results in a slightly higher daily interest rate and thus slightly higher interest charges.
No to your problem.
As I said, I am able to match the interest rate. However, this led me to notice a problem with what you sent me. Take the first payment:
Date TRXN PmtRcvd Interest Principal PrincipalBalance, DebitFees CreditFees Sept. 10, 2019 Open Bal: $56409.99, - – Sept. 20, 2019, Pmt, $494.52 $76.50 $418.02 $55990.98, - –The calculator and above agree on these facts: interest due $76.50. Pmt 494.52 – 76.50 for interest gives us a principal pmt 418.02
However, the details you are providing have a factual error. The opening principal balance 56409.99 minus the 418.02 principal payment does not equal $55990.98, it equals 55991.97.
Since we do not agree on the principal balance after the first payment, the calculator will never match the interest payment you are showing as of Oct. 4, 2019.
Is the lender providing you with the data? How do they arrive at their principal balance? Frankly, it looks as if they are cheating themselves. I would be very interested in hearing their explanation.
David says:
(Reply button has disappeared)
Hi Karl. Sorry my mistake. The Opening principal balance is 56409.00 – I must have been half asleep when I did entered that. I have now checked to make sure that there are no other errors in what I sent you. Regards David
Karl says:
David, the correction makes a difference!
Okay, I have the schedule matching to the penny through the last payment provided, i.e. Nov 1, 2019.
The way the lender is providing the data might be confusing, but I don’t see any errors. The key is, the principal balance amount is prior to the impact of either the debit or credit fees. Think of it this way, the fee amount seems to be a notice of what’s going to be due on the next pay period. No interest it being charged on the fee.
My entries are below. Of course the dates, here in the U.S. are in MM/DD/YYYY format:
Under settings, I have the rounding option set to "Open Balance"
I use the XPmt option to pay the fee, because this makes the entire payment be applied to the principal.
I left compounding set to "Monthly."
And since I’m entering the payments as made, one at a time, there is no payment frequency setting to worry about.
I hope you can duplicate this. Good luck.
Karl says:
One more thought. The lender’s software (which probably cost them thousands of dollars to buy or develope 🙂 ) seems to have the capability of allowing them to enter fees that do not accrue interest. This calculator does not have that ability. I simulated it by advancing the fee from Oct 10 to Oct 18 (when I assumed that it was due), thus avoiding the interest charges.
David says:
Hi Karl. Thank you for the info. I had considered that it was something along those lines you discussed but I couldn’t quite prove it. Thank you for your time and effort in providing a solution. Much appreciated. Regards David
Karl says:
You’re welcome. Glad to be of some help. It was an interesting problem.
Tracy says:
Hello Karl,
I just found this calculator which is great. I have a client which I sold my RV to. The aggrement is $650 monthly with a late fee of 5% for payments paid after the 5th of every month. How would I add this additional fee? Could you help me out. Thank You
Karl says:
Thank you!
In the "Series" column, one of the options in the dropdown is "Fee." The calculator is not going to calculate the 5% for you. You’ll need to calculate the amount, but you can enter the result using this fee option.
When the borrower pays you, and if you want to show the fee as being paid specifically, then use the fee option and enter the amount as a negative value. That decreases the amount owed by the fee entered.
Glenn MacLaren says:
. Hi Karl, thanks for the great calculator…I am a mortgage broker in Canada, and some of our lenders calculate Variable Rate mortgages with a monthly compounding(vs semi annual). Is there a way to have the Canadian version of compounding interest to have the option of selecting monthly compounding? I see right now, there is only annual and semi annual.
Karl says:
Hi, that sound to me like what we down here would call "Normal". Can you set the amortization method to normal, and compounding to monthly and let me know if that matches what you expect?
Glenn MacLaren says:
Ok, let me ty that. thanks
Diana K says:
Hi Karl – This calculator is exactly what my company needs.
I wanted to make sure I am doing this correctly
One of our customers has a loan out for $232,114.20 that was invoiced on 2/10/20
We are giving them a 6 month skip with a 5% interest for 24 months. The loan would start on 8/10/20. We are charging them the 6 month interest on the months they are skipping. I hope I did it correctly. I am getting a monthly rate of $10,408.48 and the interest would be $17,689.36. Can you clarify if this is correct?
Karl says:
Hi Diana, glad to hear that you think the calculator will be useful.
To your specific question, I can’t tell from the information if the numbers adhere to the terms of the loan your firm is quoting the customer. But, the numbers are "right" in the sense that given whatever inputs and setting you used, they are accurate. 🙂
Do you have a question about how to use the calculator? Or is there anything that looks off to you?
I assume you set the first row as a loan with a date of 2/10/2020 and the second row as a payment with the date set to 8/10/2020. The second row includes the number of expected payments and their frequency.
Diana says:
Hi Karl,
Yes those were the exact parameters I used. Loan date 2/10/20 $232,114.20. 6 month skip starting payments at 8/10/20 for 24 months.
I ended up putting this info in again but I got a different interest/monthly loan amount from the last time I worked on this.
Last week I got $10,408,48 monthly and interest total of $17,689.36
I just did the same thing and I got $10,397.10 monthly and interest of $17,416.12
1. why would I be getting a difference?
2. What is the calculation to come up with the interest due for the 6 month skip?
Thank you and Stay safe.
Karl says:
Hi Diana, The only reason the calculator would produce different results is that one or more settings or options was set differently. Did you happen to change days-per-year and then not set it back, for example? There are perhaps a dozen or more settings, and changing one will cause results to change. That’s why the options are available!
Your loan has what we call a "long initial period." The payment frequency is monthly, but the first payment only happens after six months have passed. There are specific options available to the user for how long initial period interest is calculated and charged. To access, click on "Settings" and pick "Interest Options."
Go here for details about how they can be set if you want more background. Scroll down the page a bit until you see "Long First Period."