Amortization schedule
How each installment is computed, what every column means and why the schedule is not stored.
The schedule is the table that answers "how much does he pay me, when, and how much of that is principal versus profit?". Prestafolio computes it with a single financial engine shared by the calculator, the loan detail and the payment flow: what you simulate is exactly what gets charged.
Where you see it
- Calculator → the full schedule, installment by installment, before creating anything. It runs in your browser; it consumes nothing from the system.
- Loan detail → the current installment: the one due right now.
What each column means
Column | What it is |
|---|---|
# | Installment number (1, 2, 3…) |
Due date | The day it must be paid |
Installment | What the client hands over in that payment |
Principal | The part that reduces the debt |
Interest | The part that is your profit |
Balance | Principal still outstanding after that payment |
The calculator's first row is the opening balance: it is not an installment, it is the starting point (balance = principal lent, no date and no amount).
Every installment satisfies: installment = principal + interest. And at the bottom of the table: the sum of all installments is the total payable, the sum of the interest is your projected profit, and the sum of the principal parts is exactly the amount you lent.
An example that adds up to the cent
RD$10,000 · 5% per period · 4 installments · monthly · Fixed credit:
# | Installment | Principal | Interest | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | RD$3,000.00 | RD$2,500.00 | RD$500.00 | RD$7,500.00 |
2 | RD$2,875.00 | RD$2,500.00 | RD$375.00 | RD$5,000.00 |
3 | RD$2,750.00 | RD$2,500.00 | RD$250.00 | RD$2,500.00 |
4 | RD$2,625.00 | RD$2,500.00 | RD$125.00 | RD$0.00 |
Totals | RD$11,250.00 | RD$10,000.00 | RD$1,250.00 |
|
Principal lent RD$10,000 + profit RD$1,250 = total payable RD$11,250. It adds up.
Precision: the system works in cents
All money is handled as whole cents, never as loose decimals. The engine carries the balance unrounded internally and only rounds to two decimals what it displays. That prevents error from piling up across 300 daily installments.
An honest detail: in the fixed installment (French) system, because the installment is a rounded figure repeated over and over, the last row can be left with a one-cent (RD$0.01) residue in the balance. That is the nature of splitting a non-exact number into equal installments: it is not a calculation bug, and it does not affect what you collect.
The detail's "current installment"
In each loan's detail you see the installment due now: it is the one right after those already paid. If the client has paid 3 of 12, the current one is number 4. Once all are paid, it keeps showing the last one.
Beyond installment / principal / interest / balance, that block also includes:
- Days late: days of delay after subtracting the grace days.
- Arrears: the late fee accrued for that delay.
Partial payments
If the client has paid part of the current installment but has not completed it, the system accounts for it: the detail exposes what was already paid and the collection screen subtracts that from what is left, so the same money is never charged twice. The flow details live in Recording a payment.
Why the schedule is not stored
Prestafolio does not store the schedule rows in the database: it recomputes them when it needs them. That is a deliberate decision, and it has two good consequences for you:
- It never drifts. If you fix a loan parameter (while it has no payments), the new schedule is correct immediately: no stale rows hanging around.
- A 1,000-installment daily loan weighs nothing. The system only materializes the installment it needs to show.
What is stored from the calculation is the total projected interest, fixed when the loan is created: it is your expected profit and it is the figure that feeds the reports.
Simulate before you lend
The calculator takes the same fields as the form, plus a target installment (for SAN) or a fixed interest per period (for Fixed interest and Open) that exist only for simulation: they let you see "if I charge him a round RD$3,000 a month, what rate is that?". That field does not travel to the real loan.
Once the result convinces you, the "Create loan with this data" button opens the form already filled in; you only pick the client and confirm. See Creating a loan.