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Text File | 1988-10-30 | 22KB | 480 lines

AMORT Version 4.0 Program and documentation copyright 1988 by John R. Ackermann, Jr. Welcome to AMORT -- a fast, full featured loan amortization program. Version 4.0 is an almost complete rewrite of Version 3.3, and adds several new capabilities. WHAT AMORT DOES AMORT is a program designed to solve a variety of loan calculations and amortizations, and to print amortization schedules to either the screen or the printer. It can find any one unknown (such as starting balance, term, interest rate, or periodic payment amount) if the other values are provided, and can solve for either a declining interest or declining payment loan. It calculates the actual payment dates and can deal with first and/or last payments that aren't a full period in length. The program will "fill in the blank" with the missing loan variable, display a yearly summary of the loan balance, and, if requested, generate a full amortization schedule. The summary and schedule may be sent to either the screen or the printer. LET'S MAKE A DEAL AMORT is NOT in the public domain. I've retained ownership of the program and am authorizing its use on terms that I think are fair to both you and me: 1. You may make unlimited use of AMORT in your PERSONAL affairs. It's not reasonable to expect you to pay for a program that you use just out of curiosity, or to figure out amortizations of your own loans. Of course, if you want to register the program anyway to obtain the benefits outlined below, I won't stop you! 2. BUSINESS users of AMORT must register with me and pay a fee of $25.00 per copy (contact me about site licenses at substantially reduced rates). If this program helps you in your legal, accounting, real estate, banking, etc., business, it's only fair that you pay a reasonable price for the benefits you get. Of course, you need a chance to find out if AMORT does what it says, so you may evaluate AMORT for a 21 day period before registering. Unregistered use of the program for business purposes after that period is a violation of my license to you. 3. All users who register with me will receive the next release of AMORT on a disk, along with some other programs I've written (right now, these include an easy-to-use DOS menu program, a label printing program designed especially for the HP LaserJet and DeskJet, and a program to warn you when disk space is getting low). 4. I encourage you to distribute AMORT, but only in an archived package including AMORT.EXE, AMORT.DOC, and README.NOW. If you distribute AMORT on diskette, you may not charge more than the reasonable cost of duplication and distribution. I think that $7.00 is a reasonable maximum charge. 5. The actual license terms are at the end of this document, and at the end of the HELP screens within AMORT. Please read the license before using the program. 6. Your use of AMORT signifies your acceptance of these terms. INSTALLING AMORT AMORT will (should?) work on any 100% IBM PC compatible computer with at least 128k of RAM, running MS or PC DOS version 2 or later. To achieve its blazing speed, AMORT uses direct calls to the video memory in your computer, and thus only "truly compatible" computers will work. If your machine will run the IBM PC version of Lotus 1-2-3, it should run AMORT with no trouble. AMORT will take advantage of a color display if one is present, but will also work on a monochrome system. Some color monitors may show annoying "snow" on the screen as AMORT displays its data. If this is the case, run the program with the command line switch "S" (see details on the switches below). To run AMORT, put the program (AMORT.EXE) in either your current drive/directory, or in your current directory path, and type AMORT <return>. CUSTOMIZING AMORT WITH COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS AMORT recognizes several command line switches (commands entered after typing "AMORT" at the DOS prompt, but before pressing the return key). These switches allow you to add emphasized printing to amortization schedules, adjust AMORT's page length to compensate for the 60 line pages printed by laser printers, and adjust the video output to prevent "snow" that occurs with some color monitors. Another switch allows you to change AMORT's method of rounding its calculated values. The command line switches are entered as single letters, either upper or lower case, following the program name. Any combination of switches can be used (but, of course, only one printer switch may be used at a time); multiple switches must be separated by a space. For example, "AMORT L S" is a valid entry, but "AMORT LS" will not work (actually, AMORT will see the L, but ignore the S). AMORT recognizes these parameters: C -- enable enhanced printing for C. Itoh printers; E -- enable enhanced printing for Epson MX and FX printers; L -- enable enhanced printing and adjust page length for HP LaserJet printers (this switch also works with the HP DeskJet); N -- adjust page length for HP LaserJets and DeskJets, but don't mess with print format; S -- compensate for color monitor that generate a "snowy" display if you run AMORT without this command; and R -- force AMORT to round internal calculations to the nearest penny. There's more about this feature later in the document. The "enhanced" printing we're talking about here isn't anything fancy; it's just the judicious use of bold-face print to highlight data and give a bit of zip to the schedules. The L and N switches adjust for the fact that the HP laser printers automatically provide a 1/2 inch (3 line) top and bottom margin. If neither of these switches is specified when using such a printer, pages may not end the way they should, especially if you're using header and footer lines (which are described below). If no command switches are used, AMORT will print schedules on a 66 line page without any enhanced printing, without compensating for snowy monitors, and using the default rounding system. CREATING CUSTOM SCHEDULES WITH HEADERS AND FOOTERS By popular demand, AMORT can be customized to print your firm name, etc., at the top of each printout page, and a disclaimer (or whatever) at the bottom of the last page of each schedule. AMORT looks in both the current drive/directory and on your current path for a text file called AMORT.TXT. If this file exists, the first two lines will be used by AMORT for the report header and footer. If AMORT can't find the file, it won't print any headers or footers. AMORT can look for the header file in the same places as DOS can find AMORT, so there are a lot of possible ways to install the program. I think the simplest way is to install both AMORT.EXE and AMORT.TXT in a directory that's on your default path. I have them in my \DOS directory; since I always have a path to that directory, I can run AMORT from wherever I might be on the disk. If the header or footer lines are longer than 80 characters, only the first 80 will be used; if they are shorter than that, they will be centered when printed, so don't worry about padding the lines with spaces. If AMORT.TXT has only one line, that line will be printed as a header and there won't be any footers. If there are more than two lines in the file, only the first two will be used. An easy way to create AMORT.TXT is to go to the directory where you want to store the file and issue the following commands at the DOS prompt: copy con AMORT.TXT <return> (type the header line of up to 80 characters and press return) (type the footer line of up to 80 characters and press return) (press the control and Z keys simultaneously, or press F6) (press return) For example: copy con AMORT.TXT Wonderful Software by John Ackermann If it doesn't work, don't blame me. ^Z HOW TO ENTER DATA All function selections in AMORT are based on prompts which appear at the bottom of the screen. Only the letters specified (in either upper or lower case) will be accepted; anything else is ignored. Most menus offer you the option of exiting the current function by pressing "Q". The first menu you'll see when you start AMORT gives you these choices: (A)mortization -- perform a standard constant payment/declining principal amortization; (P)rincipal -- perform a constant principal/declining payment amortization (with each payment being a fixed principal amount plus interest); (H)elp -- display built-in help (a condensed version of this document); and (Q)uit to DOS. After you've selected an amortization type, enter the loan data. You may move through the fields to change data as often as you like; the cursor movement keys are outlined below. When you are finished entering or changing data, press the ESC key. If the data chosen will not amortize (for example, if the monthly payment is less than the monthly interest), you will be prompted to try again. AMORT can solve for any one loan variable (beginning balance, interest rate, loan term, number of payments per year, or periodic payment amount). To have AMORT calculate a missing variable, simply leave that field blank when entering the other loan data. These keys control the movement of the cursor in the data entry screen: Tab/Rtrn/DnArr/PgDn -- Go to the next field Shft-Tab/UpArr/PgUp -- Go to the previous field Home/End -- Go to first/last field Left/Right Arrow -- Move one space in a field Ctrl-Left/Right Arr -- Move to beginning/end of field Delete -- Delete char and close space Backspace -- Delete char and move cursor left Insert -- Space under cursor and push right Data is entered in overtype mode; to insert data, use the Insert key to "make a hole" in existing text. In numeric fields, only the characters 0 through 9, "+", "-", and "." are accepted. Any other characters will be ignored. Trailing zeroes (for example, pennies where an even dollar amount is being entered) need not be included. The interest rate should be entered in per cent, e.g., "12" and not ".12" for a 12 per cent rate. Dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY, although if you vary from this format by entering "6" instead of "06", or using a "." or "-" as a separator, AMORT will do its best to figure out what you want as long as the date is entered in the right order (month,day,year). More information on date entry is provided below. AMORT'S LIMITS Loan length and size: AMORT has no fixed limits for loan length or size. We've successfully tested it with a full amortization of a $99,000,000 loan with monthly payments for 99 years at 12 per cent interest. Interest rates: Interest rates from 0 to 299 percent are allowed, but negative values are not permitted. AMORT can solve for unknown rates of over 100 percent. If AMORT calculates an unknown interest rate, it will be accurate to .001 percent. Payments per year: To keep things realistic, we've had to put a few restraints on the number of payments per year that can be specified. If you're supplying the payments-per-year, the highest valid number is 365; AMORT would have trouble dealing with more than one payment per day! If the number of payments per year is the unknown for which you're solving, there are two constraints. First, the maximum for which AMORT can solve is 99 payments per year. Second, you can only solve for payments-per-year if the other values you have provided will actually amortize with a whole (integer) number of yearly payments. AMORT can't handle 11.213 payments per year! Periodic payment amount: AMORT can solve for the periodic payment amount, and in fact that's usually the value that people want to have calculated. You can supply that value, though. If you do, AMORT will calculate the other missing value (if any) and then ask if you want the payment amount you've specified recalculated for a "perfect" amortization (one with an ending balance near $0.00). This allows you to adjust the payment amount to match the amount necessary to have a zero balance after the last payment. DEALING WITH DATES Version 4.0 of AMORT uses actual loan and payment dates, rather than payment numbers (as in earlier versions of the program). You will be prompted to enter the starting date of the loan (the date when interest begins to run), the first payment date, and the balloon date. Please note that these dates DO NOT determine the loan length (the amortization period). That is done by specifying (or allowing AMORT to calculate) the loan term in years and months. The balloon date is simply the date of the last payment you want printed. That payment may be the last one to zero out the loan, but it can also be an earlier payment, in which case AMORT will display the final balloon amount to pay off the loan. Dates should be entered in the format MM/DD/YYYY. The slash, period, and dash characters are acceptable separators. If you enter only the last two digits of the year, AMORT will assume you mean the twentieth century and will add a "19". I strongly recommend, though, that you get in the habit of using all four digits -- the twenty-first century is a lot closer than we'd like to admit! If any or all of the date fields are left blank, AMORT will do its best to fill them in for you: 1. If the starting date (the date interest starts to run) is left blank, AMORT will supply today's date from your computer's clock/calendar. 2. If the first payment date is blank, it will be one full period (e.g., one month if monthly payments have been selected) after the starting date. 3. If the balloon date (the date of the last payment, whether the full loan term or not) is blank, it will be set to the last payment date for a full-term amortization. If you're doing a full-term analysis, you don't have to fill in the balloon date, and if you don't care about the dates, just leave them blank and AMORT will set up a schedule which assumes the loan begins on the date gotten from your computer's clock/calendar. To make AMORT work accurately with a wide variety of loans, I've had to establish presumptions about certain types of schedules. As a result, loans with certain numbers of payments per year get special treatment. If 12 or 24 payments per year are specified, AMORT will keep the loan payments falling on the same day(s) of the month throughout the term of the loan. If a payment falls on an invalid date like February 31, the date will be adjusted to reflect a valid one. AMORT treats each month as having 30 days (a 360 day year). If 26 or 52 payments per year are chosen, AMORT will treat the loan as a true weekly or biweekly one. This means payments will fall every 14 or 7 days, without regard to crossing over months or years. Some years may end up with 27 or 53 payments because of this. Additionally, AMORT will attempt to make the balloon date match the loan length by adding additional payments to compensate for leap years and other vagaries of our calendar. This means that in a long loan, the number of payments will be greater than, for example, simply multiplying 30 years times 52 payments per year. This treatment also means that the balloon payment date may not be what you might expect, because the loan term (10 years, for example) may not be precisely divisible by the number of days between payments. MATH CONVENTIONS -- TO ROUND, OR NOT TO ROUND Dollar figures are rounded to the nearest penny when they are displayed, but AMORT's internal calculations use the full precision of the unrounded values. Although this maximizes the accuracy of every value displayed by the program, it may cause an apparent discrepancy of a few cents, for example, between the calculated yearly interest paid and the sum of the displayed interest payments for that year. The calculated total will be more accurate, because it's based on the sum of the actual, rather than displayed, values. Some users have been concerned because this rounding makes the printed schedules look erroneous. I believe in giving people a choice, so using the "R" switch when AMORT is run (with the command "AMORT R") will force the values used for internal calculations to be rounded to the nearest penny. This should prevent any problems with the schedules being internally inconsistent. This rounding does, however, exact a price. The calculations of cumulative interest and remaining balance may be off by a small amount that increases with the length of the amortization. These cumulative errors will ultimately reveal themselves at the end of the amortization, when the final payment necessary to retire the loan will be different than the normal periodic payment amount. Using the rounding switch also reduces the range of loans that AMORT can handle, because it's possible in a long loan at high interest to have initial principal reductions of less than 1/2 cent per payment. If those reductions are rounded down to zero, the loan balance will never decrease and the amortization won't work. A loan like this will amortized properly when rounding is turned off, because the loan balance will be reduced by fractional pennies even if the schedule displays the principal reduction as $0.00. In short, I recommend that you NOT use the R switch to force internal rounding. I think it's better to put up with the apparent inconsistencies caused by rounding than to sacrifice accuracy. OUTPUT When AMORT is ready to prepare the summary and/or amortization schedule, you will be shown a menu line with these choices: (S)ummary -- display or print the yearly summary only. The summary contains the principal reduction, interest paid, cumulative interest paid, and balance remaining at the end of each calendar year of the loan; (F)ull -- display or print the full amortization schedule, with one line for each payment. This schedule also shows year-end totals; (B)oth -- display or print both schedules; (E)dit again -- edit this data to change values, or start a new amortization; and (Q)uit to DOS. If you choose to edit again, you will be given the choice of editing (O)ld values (the current data) or (N)ew ones. If you choose to edit new values, you will be returned to the original menu you saw when you started AMORT. If you choose to view the schedules, you will be prompted to select output to either the (S)creen or the (P)rinter. If you select output to the printer, AMORT will prompt you to press P again when the printer is ready. If there is a printer problem, AMORT will let you know and give you an opportunity to put things right. Output to the screen or printer can be cancelled at any time by pressing Q. When you are finished viewing the amortization, you will have the choice of (E)diting again or (Q)uitting to DOS. As before, if you choose to edit again you will have the option of working with your current data, or starting from scratch. LEGALITIES Remember, AMORT is NOT in the public domain. You are licensed to use this program for your own use, and at your own risk. REGISTRATION: You may make private use of this program without registering, but if you use it for commercial purposes (i.e., as part of or in furtherance of your business) you MUST register with me and pay a fee of $25.00 for each copy of the program so used. DISTRIBUTION: You are free to, and in fact are encouraged to, distribute AMORT either on disk or electronically, as long as AMORT.EXE, AMORT.DOC, and README.NOW are included together and no more than the reasonable cost of duplication and distribution is charged. $7.00 is considered to be a reasonable charge. Additionally, if you describe or promote AMORT in any publication or advertisement for software distribution, the copy must clearly indicate that AMORT is not in the public domain, and that a fee is charged for certain types of use. DISCLAIMERS: AMORT is distributed on an AS-IS basis, and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL John R. Ackermann, Jr. BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER, WHETHER DIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL, ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OF THIS PROGRAM. ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND/OR FITNESS FOR INTENDED USE, ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Please direct registrations, comments and suggestions to: John R. Ackermann, Jr. 2790 Swigert Road Dayton, OH 45440 CompuServe 72300,1160 Thanks for your support!