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Calculating within MailMerge Letters.

Example: Loan Payment

(note: the REFI letters supplied with your FARM program have built formulas to calculate loan payments)

To find the Loan Payment, the equation is:

Payment = (Lprin/(1 + Rate)) * (Rate/(1 - ((1 + Rate)^(- Months))))

Where:

• Lprin = Loan Principle (Amount to be financed)
• Rate = Monthly Interest Rate Factor

Note: To get this, take the interest rate, divide by 12 (months),

and divide by 100 to get decimal

• Months = Months in term (i.e., Years x 12)

Example:

For $100,000 loan, over 30 Years, at 6 percent

• Monthly Interest Rate Factor = 6/12 = .5, /100 = .005
• Months = 12 x 30 = 360
• Payment = (Lprin/(1 + Rate)) * (Rate/(1 - ((1 + Rate)^(- Months))))
  • = (100000/(1 + .005)) * (.005/(1 - ((1 + .005)^(-360))))
  • = (100000/1.005) * (.005/(1-(1.005^-360)))
  • = $ 596 per month

To insert into a Mail Merge letter:

Using the example above, with the assessed value as loan amount you would type:

{STR(((ASSD_VAL/(1 + .005)) * (.005/(1 - ((1 + .005)^(- 360))))),8,2)}

To do any other type of calculation, observe the following rules:

1. All expressions must be enclosed by curly brackets "{ }" . An "expression" is your calculation plus the STR command, explained below.
2. All calculations must be formatted with a STR command. This instruction tells the program to print a given calculation with a specified amount of digits and decimal places. The format for the STR command is: STR((calc),n,d)
   Where:
   calc = The value you wish to appear. This can be any calculation within the parentheses, using "*" for multiplication, "/ " for division, "+" for addition, and "-" for subtraction.
   n = The number of digits to the LEFT of the decimal point
   d = The number of decimal places to display (if any)
3. Valid field names may be used in place of any number in a calculation. Field names can be found in the back of your manual, in the "Farm File Layout" appendix.

In General:

To Print any calculation insert the following and substitute your calculation for calc: {STR((calc),7,2) }

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