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.
Max says:
Hi Karl,
This calculator works great, thank you! One issue I am running into is when I add an extra payment (of type “Xtra Pmt”), save the file, and then open the file again, that extra payment is now shown as regular payment (of type “Payment”).
Karl says:
Well, that’s not good. Thanks for letting me know Max. I should be able to get this fixed within the next couple of weeks. I’m nearly finished with a site update, and I’ll take this issue up right after that.
Karl says:
Hi Max, just want to let you know that I’ve fixed the file save/load issue you reported with the calculator. You’ll need to adjust and resave any files you’ve created to see the fix.
Ravikumar says:
When I change the initial interest rate in “invest”, the IRR is not changing. Is it because it is not calculating the “cost of money” ?
Karl says:
That shouldn’t be the reason, but I don’t have enough data to go on. Something else is probably changing. Please save your two calculations and email me the files and I’ll take a look.
Lynn says:
Would any of your calculators help me with calculating late payments and interest on a personal auto loan to my Granddaughter? It was financed, and I got tired of her non payment so I paid off the loan myself. Now she can pay me, along with interest that would have gone to the bank. I tried to find an amortization schedule that I could manually input dates of payments she has made, with no luck.
Karl says:
Yes. Please use this loan payoff calculator. Scroll down the page to see the instructions. It will allow you to enter any payment amount on any date, and it will calculate the appropriate interest due. If you have any questions, just ask at the bottom of that page.
Lynn says:
Thank you so much! I will give it a go!
Clint Biggs says:
What a great tool. Thanks for sharing. I do need some help modeling the loan and payment schedule I’m following. I’ve worked through the tutorials but my situation is a little more blended and I can’t quite get it right.
Using some hypothetical numbers:
– I am borrowing $180k on July 1, 2019.
– Terms are 6% calculated quarterly (end of quarter) over 4 years (1 interest only payment plus 16 principle/interest payments) to completely retire the loan.
– Payments are due on the first day of the second month following the end of the quarter (meaning Q1 payment due on April 1).
– The first quarter (Q3 2019) will be the interest only payment to float the loan until scheduled payments start. That interest only payment will be due on Nov 1, 2019.
– Q4 2019 payment will be the first of 16 full principle plus interest payments due on Feb 1, 2020.
– Additionally, I would like to make an extra irregular payment for two during the term.
How would I set this up with the UFC?
Karl says:
You’re welcome.
Is the interest rate a quarterly rate? Or is 6% an annual rate? The calculator assumes that all rates are annual. So if 6% is a quarterly rate, you’ll need to convert it.
What part are you having problems with? Did you see how to make the first payment interest only? The second row will be for a single payment. Click on cash flow options and select interest only. After that, the 3rd row will be for the 16 principal/interest payments.
I see the twist though. You want to delay the first interest-only payment. Interest accrues through Sept. 31 and the payment is due on Nov. 1. I doubt if any calculator will do this. Why? Because what lender is going to lend money for free? That sounds as if that’s the arrangement. You want the interest calculated on the $180,000 balance through Sept 30, and not collect the payment until Nov.1. That means the lender is not charging anything for the use of the money from Oct 1 to Nov 1.
To get accurate numbers you’ll have to set the first interest-only payment due on Oct 1, and then the 2 parties will need to agree that means Nov. 1, etc.
Clint says:
The 6% is an annual rate calculated quarterly.
The loan does not have any interest free periods. It has a 31 day payment window. It would be like having your mortgage payment due on the 1st but late after the 10th. Interest does not stop on the principle after the 1st, it assumes payment and continues to accrue on the remaining principle.
Thoughts?
Karl says:
Alright, there’s no issue with the interest rate. You enter that as 6%.
One more question, and since this is only an illustration, I’m going to simply your example.
Rather than 16 P&I payments, change it to 4. This gives us a payment due schedule as follows:
Loan date: July 1, 2019, $180,000 Interest Payment: Nov. 1, 2019 for interest accrued quarter 3, July 1 - through Sept. 30. P&I Payment: Feb. 1, 2020 with interest accrued quarter 4, Oct 1 - through Dec. 31. P&I Payment: May 1, 2020 with interest accrued quarter 1, Jan 1 - through Mar. 31. P&I Payment: Aug. 1, 2020 with interest accrued quarter 2, Apr 1 - through Jun. 30. P&I Payment: Nov. 1, 2020 with interest accrued quarter 3, Jul 1 - through Sep. 31.Is this the payment pattern you need? If so, then in that case, either the final period is for interest through Oct. 31, 2020 (thus a 4 month "quarter") or the last 30 days is interest free for the outstanding principal.
Karl says:
You could enter a rate-change row on Oct. 1 and set the interest rate to 0%. And then add as the 3rd row an interest-only payment row on Nov. 1. That would give you an accurate payment amount. Then your 16 quarterly payments would start in the 4th row with a P&I payment due on Feb. 1st.
Clint says:
I think I got it figured out. What a great tool. Thanks for making this available.
AK says:
Karl! The savior!
Thanks for creating this. This is fantastic. How can I get the plug in for this?
Also, can I change the ‘interest rate’ to say ‘Investment return’?
Karl says:
I don’t think I would go that far, but in any event, thank you for the compliment.
This calculator is not a plugin. All the available WordPress plugins are here.
Kathy says:
Would a “forgiven” monthly payment work on the ultimate-financial-calculator? I’ve gotten myself confused (and that doesn’t take much these days!). It’s a personal loan so the principal can be reduced by the normal monthly payment, but they wouldn’t pay any interest so the yearly total would need to be adjusted for their yearly interest statement. I’m probably overthinking it, so came to the expert. Thanks for any assistance.
Karl says:
Hi Kathy, if my understanding is correct, it sounds as if the principal is paid but there’s no interest. If that’s the case, the calculator will handle that easily. Enter a "Rate Change" row with the date the interest stops. Set the new interest rate to 0.0%. Continue to collect the payments at whatever amount you need, and the payments will be used to reduce principal – no interest. Then when interest resumes, enter a new rate change series and set the interest rate back to whatever you need.
If I’ve misunderstood, let me know where I want wrong.
Kathy says:
Spot on…..I knew I was overthinking it….thank you!
Karl says:
Wonderful! Thank you for letting me know.
Kathy says:
Well, I’m back to the drats…
5/1/20 rate change to 0%
5/1/20 $613 payment
6/1/20 rate change to 1%
6/1/20 $613 payment
Payment Schedule:
5/1/20 rate change 0%
5/1/20 Change Compounding Monthly 613.00 interest 0 (these two lines are what I wanted to see)
6/1/20 rate change 1%
6/1/20 Change Compounding Monthly 613.00 interest 0 (this was not what I wanted to see – there needs to be a figure here – not 0.
Any clue as to what I may have done wrong? Thanks!
Karl says:
If both the May 1 and the June 1 payment needs to be for $0 interest, then the loan is interest-free for 2 months. Make a rate change to 0% on April 1 (the April 1 payment will show the interest for March) and the 2nd rate change back to 1% interest rate on June 1. The July 1 payment will then have the interest for June. May 1 and June 1 payments will have a $0 interest payment because April and May had a 0% interest rate.
A payment series includes interest (or not) for the immediately preceding period (for the exact number of days), not the period coming up.
Does that clear things up?
Kathy says:
Drats – I thought I had it down. I inserted a line for the rate change “0” prior to posting the payment (May 1, 2020). Once the payment was posted, I inserted a line for the rate change back to “1” and posted the payment (June 1, 2020). Everything looks great on the input page When I “schedule” the report shows the rate change and the compounding for the payment. However it shows the full principal payment and no interest. July thru December each have two lines. The top line has a payment and interest amount; the second line show a principal amount only. Obviously I’ve done something wrong. Suggestions?? (Just as an aside, when I worked computers in the old days when it was reel to reel everyone hated it when it was my turn, because I always did something that was unexpected and took a while to unravel!) Hope that’s not the case here. Thanks again!
Kathy says:
Please disregard my earlier question. I cleared the calculator and redid it and now everything is fine. Thank you again for the use of this calculator. It’s awesome!
Sandra says:
We are using your tool to prepare an amortization schedule. Our core system uses Daily 365 Simple Interest. Your tool is coming up with almost the same interest each month, but it’s a little off. How should we update the settings to make sure it is calculating the interest on the Daily/365 Interest calculation method? For Rounding Options, we have, “Adjust last amount to reach “0” balance. We chose 365 in the 360/365 Days field. For Interest Options, we chose “Amortized and Reduce All.” Any assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Karl says:
Do you have "Compounding" set to "Exact/Simple?"
Does the interest match for the first payment? If not, then you should try different interest options. Is the first period a long period or short period?
If you still don’t get it to match, please provide some of these details.
Roger says:
Karl,
Here’s my issue: I can set up a loan with interest only payments for 12 months. How do I add a fee of 1.5 points of the loan amount as a separate payment to extend the loan for another 12 months of interest only payments, but without charging interest on the 1.5 fee or having the fee deducted from the loan amount? I cannot seem to figure this out, perhaps you can help me. Thanks.
Karl says:
Hi Roger,
The first row is for the loan amount.
The 2nd row is for the first 12 interest-only payments.
The 3rd row is for the fee. You’ll need to calculate 1.5% amount. The calculator will not calculate it. So to belabor the point, if the balance is 100,000, in the 3rd row you will enter the "Fee" as $1,500.
The 4th row is for the next 12 interest-only payments. The interest payment amount will be slightly higher since the fee has not been paid and it’s added to the balance.
If the fee HAS been paid, then the 3rd row is the fee amount. The 4th row is a payment for the amount of the fee.
The 5th row is the next 12 interest-only payments.
Does this help?
Roger says:
I didn’t think of adding a line of payment made. Brilliant!
Thank you
Karl says:
Wonderful. Glad that worked. Thanks for letting me know.
Ralph says:
This is a great calculator, thank you! I’ve been trying to use the UFC to calculate the interest schedule using the Rule of 78 method; it works well for a simple payment schedule, but how does it handle irregular payments?
For example, for a loan amount on 05/15/2020 of 29,840, and 36 repayments of 1,020 starting 06/15/2020 (ending 05/15/2023). The total interest is 6,880. Interest in month 1 = 36/666 * 6,880 = 371.89, and in month 36 = 1/666 * 6,880 = 10.33.
But say I change the regular payments to 35 * 881.85 and have a final repayment of 5,855.25 on 05/15/2023. The number of payments is still the same and the total interest is still the same. Why does the Ro78 schedule change so that less interest is recognised at the start of the agreement, and more at the end?
Karl says:
Glad you like the calculator, but it does not support an irregular payment schedule when Rule-of-78s is selected. I thought it showed the user a message stating this? If it didn’t, it should have.
Ralph says:
Thanks for the quick response Karl. I didn’t notice the message, but that makes sense. Thank you!
Ted Brown says:
My windows 10 computer will not allow me to download the XLS data file with my loan data.
Karl says:
I’m sorry you’re having an issue. However, you really didn’t give me anything to go on if you are looking for assistance (you’ve not asked a question). The issue is not related to Windows 10.
Perhaps it’s related to the browser? What browser are you using? And what version. The calculator only works with recent browser versions.
Or is it a permission issue? Does your user account on the Windows 10 machine allow your browser to write to the drive? Or is the problem with the permission for writing to a particular folder?
WARREN TED BROWN says:
I’m using Edge and I’m seeing “chatter” that this may have started with a recent Microsoft update. When I try to download the XLS file it is blocked (download message box) from download and there’s no option for giving permission to download it anyway. I’ve tried some suggested security work arounds to no avail.
WARREN TED BROWN says:
The download box that appears says “***.xml was blocked because this type of file can harm your device” and will not allow me to download it anyway.
Any idea on how to get it to download? Thanks.
Warren T Brown says:
It worked in Chrome so it looks like the new Edge is the villain!
Karl says:
Yes, it is a recent Edge configuration issue. I ran into this last month when I downloaded another file type on another site.
I’ll see what configuration changes can be made (if any) to allow Edge to download, and I’ll let you know.
Karl says:
In researching for a solution to this problem (as I said, one I have had with other sites), I see there is a lot written about this. Almost all solutions do not work.
However, what worked for me was this.
When you see the message "This type of file may harm your computer," (it can’t by downloading it, it’s a text file), you can right-click and select from the menu "Keep".
Then go to your default download folder, and you’ll see the file there.
If the file name looks something like this:
Unconfirmed 92168.crdownload
the refresh Windows’ explore’s file list. You’ll need to see an ‘.XML’ extension before the file is usable by the calculator.