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Maintenance Update 03 31 2011

Calculator update notes for 3-31-2011.

Financial Calculator Update 3/31/2011

The quarterly update for 3/31/2011 is a targeted update. The only changes are centered around the tax specific calculators calculators, which have been updated to the preliminary 2011 tax rules and rates. There have been a few other updates, but they are limited to optional changes and enhancements. The one exception to this are new rates for 72T calculations. If you do not have any tax calculators or 72T calculators, you may safely skip this update.

If you have not updated your calculators in a while you should definitely refresh your existing HTML calculator pages. All updates are cumulative, so if you start fresh with this update you will have all previous calculator updates as well. If you would like, you can review our 12/31/2010 update: 12/31/2010 Update. (The 3/31/2011 update includes all changes included in previous updates, you do not need to download any other updates to have the most current versions of all of the calculator components.)

Make sure to try our Calculator Configurator: Calculator Configurator
This new tool lets you see exactly how you can customize the many features of our calculators.

Update instructions*:

  1. Download the latest version of your calculators from your download site, found on your update e-mail notice.
  2. Execute the Calc.exe file from your download. This is a self-extracting zip file. (Or unzip the Calc.zip file if you are using a non-windows platform.)
  3. When prompted for a directory, you may use the default of "java" or enter your own. It is recommended that you extract the update to a new directory and then move the required files to your production environment. One directory will be created with no subdirectories.
  4. Delete the contents, in your current deployment, of the KJEgui, KJEgraph and KJEcalculation directories and remove them from your server. The new version no longer requires these directories or their content.
  5. Replace your current dinkytown.jar file with the new version.
  6. Replace all files with the extension "class" with the new version.
  7. Make required changes to any HTML documents as described in this document or replace all of your existing HTML documents and re-apply your web-site custom changes.

*Please note, if you have a Servlet or other custom deployment (other than the custom formatted delivery described below), installation instructions for your package will found on your download page.

Update for custom formatted delivery**:

**Custom formatted delivery is a special option that you can add to your maintenance update service. With this option we can apply an HTML, JSP, CFM or ASP template to your calculator pages and their reports before the update is sent to you. You will then receive your calculator pages with all of your site formatting in place, without any rework to include changes that have been made to the pages deployed on your server. If you are interested in using custom formatted delivery, please contact us at (612) 331-2291, or for more information.

  1. Download the latest version of your calculators from your download site, found on your update e-mail notice.
  2. Execute the Calc.exe file from your download. This is a self-extracting zip file. (Or unzip the Calc.zip file if you are using a non-windows platform.)
  3. When prompted for a directory, you may use the default of "c:\java" or enter your own. It is recommended that you extract the update to a new directory and then move the required files to your production environment. One directory will be created with no subdirectories.
  4. Delete the contents, in your current deployment, of the KJEgui, KJEgraph and KJEcalculation directories and remove them from your server. The new version no longer requires these directories or their content.

All pages will be custom formatted to your site, no further integration or modification of the calculators is required. Please note, if your custom delivery uses Active Server Pages (ASP), Java™ Server Pages (JSP) or Cold Fusion (CFM) the respective ASP, JSP or CFM pages will be in place of your HTML documents for all calculator main pages. Report templates will remain in HTML documents (these documents are not called by your server, but instead used by the applet in the main calculator page).

To clear your Browser's cache:

    When you test the new version of the calculators, make sure that the browser you are using uses the new files instead of any it may have in its cache. You may need to clear the browser's cache manually to ensure the new versions are loaded.

    Internet Explorer:

    Choose "Internet Options" under the "Tools" menu and on the "General" tab click on the "Delete" button under the Browsing History section. Click the top button "Clear private data now..." Click "Ok" when prompted if you wish to delete all temporary files. Close this dialog box, and all open Internet Explorer windows. Your Cache should then be cleared.

    Firefox and Netscape:

    Choose "Clear private data..." under the "Tools" menu. Check the box for "Cache" and then click the button "Clear private data now".

Master Changes (no HTML changes required, affects all calculators)

    No change to base functionality of calculators in this update.

Updates that require modifications to HTML documents

  1. 1040 Tax Estimator: (Tax1040.html) has been updated for new rates and schedules for 2011. This includes changes to the definitions, and the java calculation modules. It is highly likely that additional changes to the tax rates and rules will take place before the end of 2011. This update uses the current tax law for its estimates (and does not attempt to determine new or changed law not yet in effect).

  2. 1040EZ Tax Estimator: (Tax1040EZ.html) has been updated for new rates and schedules for 2011. This includes changes to the definitions, and the java calculation modules. Please note that no new entry or output fields were required, but the tax tables and many of the tax computations were affected. This update uses the current tax law for its estimates (and does not attempt to determine new or changed law not yet in effect).

  3. Marginal Tax Estimator: (TaxMargin.html, SPTaxMargin.html) has been updated for new rates and schedules for 2011. This includes changes to the definitions, and the java calculation modules. Please note that no new entry or output fields were required, but the tax tables and many of the tax computations were affected. This update uses the current tax law for its estimates (and does not attempt to determine new or changed law not yet in effect).

  4. Self Employment Tax Calculator: (TaxSelfEmployment.html) has been updated for new rates and schedules for 2011. This includes changes to the definitions, and the java calculation modules. Please note that no new entry or output fields were required, but the tax tables and many of the tax computations were affected. This update uses the current tax law for its estimates (and does not attempt to determine new or changed law not yet in effect).

  5. Earned Income Tax Credit Calculator: (EarnedIncomeCredit.html) has been updated for new rates and schedules for 2011. This includes changes to the definitions, and the java calculation modules. Please note that no new entry or output fields were required, but the tax tables and many of the tax computations were affected. This update uses the current tax law for its estimates (and does not attempt to determine new or changed law not yet in effect).

  6. 72(t) Calculator: Early withdrawals from retirement accounts (Retire72T.html, Retire72T2.html), 72(t) Distributions: Impact on retirement fund balances (Retire72TAlt.html): The Federal Mid-Term rate has been updated for April 2011. This change affects the calculators default values and the definition of Reasonable Interest Rate For April 2011. For April 2011, 120% of the Federal Mid-Term rate has changed from 2.34% (Jan. 2011) to 2.98%.

Updates do not require changes to HTML documents

  1. How long will my retirement savings last? (RetirementDistribution.html): New entry fields have been added for one-time or shorter time period (not the entire retirement time-frame) withdrawals and deposits. This allows you to add other cash-flow you might expect during retirement beyond fixed monthly expenses. We have also made the payment schedule and graph list the year number starting with the current year (2011), instead of starting with 1.

    All additional inputs are considered to be annual amounts that happen at the beginning of the year.  If you have two items that overlap, they will offset (or partially offset) each other.  The inputs allow for 10 lines (one pre extra withdrawal or deposit) and consist of:

       
    1. Amount:  Amount to deposit or withdraw. Since these are cash flow items, negative numbers are withdrawals, and positive numbers are deposits.  If no amount is entered, we blank out the two years fields.  
    2. Year to start: First year of the item be deposited or withdrawn.  This is a year, with the current year (2011) the lowest number allowed.  If the year to end it blank or less than year to start we enter the year to start in this field as its default.  
    3. Year to end: Default is to be the same as the year to start, but you can change it to any year after the year to start.
     

    If the year to start is the same as the year to end, we assume the amount is deposited or withdrawn only once in that year.  On the report, in this case, we clearly state this is one year.  If it is more than one year, then we give the start and end dates on the report.

  2. Canadian Rent vs Buy(CAMortgageRentvsBuy.html, FRMortgageRentvsBuy.html): New HST or GST tax calculations have been included to make them specific to the particular provinces. New defintions and new calculations are now included.
  3. Canadian Mortgage Calculators: The maximum amortization period for a Canadian Mortgage has been reduced to 30 years. This change is to comply with new rules that can be found at: http://www.fin.gc.ca/n11/data/11-003_1-eng.asp. This affects the following Canadian calculators:

    Bi-weekly Mortgage PaymentsCABiweekly.html
    Mortgage QualifierCAMortgageQualifier.html
    Refinance Interest SavingsCAShouldIRefi.html
    Rent vs BuyCAMortgageRentvsBuy.html
    Mortgage Loan CalculatorCAMortgageLoan.html
    Mortgage PayoffCAMortgagePayoff.html
    Compare MortgagesCACompareMortgage.html

    Please note that this is the new default maximum mortgage amorization. The new rules specifically cover government backed loans. If you require a longer amortization period, you may overrided this default by adding a new one with the parameter:

    <PARAM name="TERM_MAXIMUM" value="40">

    Replace the value with the required maximum term.

  4. Home Budget Calculator: (HomeBudget.html) Has a new option to hide all of the target amounts and difference on the main report. This can be changed by adding the parameter
    <PARAM name="SHOW_TARGETS" value="FALSE">