Importan change to the SOA Calculator

Clariman

Important Change to the SOA Calculator

Please be aware of a fairly significant change to the SOA Calculator. As some of you may have seen, the calculator output sometimes shows items as "NaN" (not a number). This occurs when a user types in a non-numeric value. It has knock-on effects because it means that any resulting calculations also end up being "NaN".

To prevent this, I have added in some validation of the user input, to check that all important fields are numeric. If you enter a non-numeric value, the following will now happen:

* A message will appear in the message area telling you which section of the calculator has the non-numeric.
* The results section (Monthly Summary and/or Personal Balance Sheet) at the bottom will display "No Results".
* If the user tries to Format the output for MSE or for Print, a popup window will display telling the user to fix the non-numeric data first.
* Note. The user is still allowed to save their data with non-numerics but not to format it.

Tip: probably the most common non-numeric is when someone types in a comma (,) into a number e.g. '5,000'. Unfortunately the comma is treated as a non-numeric so should be ommitted.

If this ends up causing any difficulty, I can back out these changes, but I think they'll ensure that we have more meaningful and consistent results. Please let me know how you get on.

I have also made other small changes based on previous user feedback, but I'll not list them. I'll try to keep this message bumped up for a while, so that it doesn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Clariman

Clariman

BUMP back up

GeorgeUK

Has there been a change to the MSE format? I did a test and previewed in advanced, but it came out all over the place.

Clariman

GeorgeUK wrote: »

Has there been a change to the MSE format? I did a test and previewed in advanced, but it came out all over the place.

I have made a small change to the MSE format but it should be OK. What operating system and browser do you use?

I tested 4 different browsers last night and tested each one's output into the 3 different discussion boards that the calculator supports. I didn't actually post into MSE, but I did preview from all 4 browsers (unless I missed one).

When copy and pasting from Internet Explorer it usually looks "all over the place" but it should preview/post just fine.

Clariman

Clariman

*** THIS IS TEST DATA ONLY - NOT A REAL SOA! ***

Testing to see if the amended SOA Calculator still formats OK for MSE from IE7


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1000
Benefits................................ 500
Other income............................ 500
Total monthly income.................... 4000

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 500
Secured loan repayments................. 10
Rent.................................... 20
Management charge (leasehold property).. 30
Council tax............................. 40
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 70
Water rates............................. 80
Telephone (land line)................... 90
Mobile phone............................ 100
TV Licence.............................. 110
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 120
Internet Services....................... 130
Groceries etc. ......................... 140
Clothing................................ 150
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 170
Car Insurance........................... 180
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 190
Car parking............................. 200
Other travel............................ 210
Childcare/nursery....................... 220
Other child related expenses............ 230
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 240
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 250
Buildings insurance..................... 260
Contents insurance...................... 270
Life assurance ......................... 280
Other insurance......................... 290
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 300
Haircuts................................ 310
Entertainment........................... 320
Holiday................................. 330
Emergency fund.......................... 340
Total monthly expenses.................. 6450

Assets
Cash.................................... 1000
House value (Gross)..................... 100000
Shares and bonds........................ 2000
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 1000
Total Assets............................ 108000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 75000....(500)......6.9
Secured Debt.................. 25000....(10).......14.9
Total secured debts........... 100000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Card 1.........................2000......200.......15
Card 2.........................3000......300.......12
Total unsecured debts..........5000......500.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,000
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 6,450
Available for debt repayments........... -2,450
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 500
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -2,950

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 108,000
Total Secured debt...................... -100,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,000
Net Assets.............................. 3,000

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

======== Enter any other useful information below ========

e.g. the number of adults & children in the household, the number

of cars included in the SOA or anything else that may be useful.

Clariman

Looks OK to me.

George - please let me know if you can reproduce the problem. Thanks

GeorgeUK

I'm using IE6
It looked fine in the window i copied it from, but on pasting to the message box, was all over the shop - like the end of line wasn't there. When i previewed it, it was the same as in the message box.

I'll post a blank one here and see how it looks (then i'll get rid of it later)
Congratulations on completing your SOA. What you need to do now is to highlight, copy and paste everything (yes, I mean everything) below the line into a post on the MSE website. When you have done that, you can type any other relevant information at the end of the post.

<===== Copy and paste EVERYTHING below this line into your MSE post =====>


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance SheetMonthly Income DetailsMonthly income after tax................ 100Partners monthly income after tax....... 10Benefits................................ 1Other income............................ 0Total monthly income.................... 111Monthly Expense DetailsMortgage................................ 10Secured loan repayments................. 0Rent.................................... 0Management charge (leasehold property).. 0Council tax............................. 9Electricity............................. 8Gas..................................... 8Oil..................................... 8Water rates............................. 7Telephone (land line)................... 7Mobile phone............................ 7TV Licence.............................. 6Satellite/Cable TV...................... 6Internet Services....................... 6Groceries etc. ......................... 5Clothing................................ 5Petrol/diesel........................... 5Road tax................................ 4Car Insurance........................... 4Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 4Car parking............................. 0Other travel............................ 0Childcare/nursery....................... 0Other child related expenses............ 0Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0Buildings insurance..................... 3Contents insurance...................... 3Life assurance ......................... 3Other insurance......................... 0Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0Haircuts................................ 2Entertainment........................... 2Holiday................................. 0Emergency fund.......................... 0Total monthly expenses.................. 122AssetsCash.................................... 2.98House value (Gross)..................... 5000000Shares and bonds........................ 0Car(s).................................. 0Other assets............................ 0Total Assets............................ 5000002.98Secured DebtsDescription....................Debt......Monthly...APRMortgage...................... 0........(10).......0Total secured debts........... 0.........-.........- Unsecured DebtsDescription....................Debt......Monthly...APR1st CC.........................200.......12.5......02nd CC.........................15........5.........49Total unsecured debts..........215.......17.5......- Monthly Budget SummaryTotal monthly income.................... 111Expenses (including secured debts)....... 122Available for debt repayments........... -11Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 17.5Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -28.5Personal Balance Sheet SummaryTotal assets (things you own)........... 5,000,002.98Total Secured debt...................... -0Total Unsecured debt.................... -215Net Assets.............................. 4,999,787.98Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com. Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.======== Enter any other useful information below ========e.g. the number of adults & children in the household, the numberof cars included in the SOA or anything else that may be useful.

Clariman

Ooooh, you win. Hmm. Could you do me a big favour? Could you just do the same with the old version of the calculator and post the results here? That way I can nail down whether it is something that I changed last night or whether there is a more long-standing problem with IE6 that I wasn't aware of. The old version is here http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalcbackup.html

GeorgeUK

This is using IE6 but for the soacalcbackup

Congratulations on completing your SOA. What you need to do now is to highlight, copy and paste everything (yes, I mean everything) below the line into a post on the MSE website. When you have done that, you can type any other relevant information at the end of the post. For example, the number and ages of people in the household, the type of work you do, the type of accommodation you live in, the number of cars included in the SOA or anything else you think is useful to explain your circumstances.

<===== Copy and paste EVERYTHING below this line into your MSE post =====>


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance SheetMonthly Income DetailsMonthly income after tax................ 100Partners monthly income after tax....... 20Benefits................................ 5Other income............................ 0Total monthly income.................... 125Monthly Expense DetailsMortgage................................ 100Secured loan repayments................. 0Rent.................................... 0Management charge (leasehold property).. 0Council tax............................. 9Electricity............................. 9Gas..................................... 9Oil..................................... 8Water rates............................. 8Telephone (land line)................... 8Mobile phone............................ 7TV Licence.............................. 7Satellite/Cable TV...................... 7Internet Services....................... 6Groceries etc. ......................... 6Clothing................................ 6Petrol/diesel........................... 5Road tax................................ 5Car Insurance........................... 5Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 4Car parking............................. 4Other travel............................ 4Childcare/nursery....................... 0Other child related expenses............ 0Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0Buildings insurance..................... 3Contents insurance...................... 3Life assurance ......................... 3Other insurance......................... 2Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 2Haircuts................................ 2Entertainment........................... 2Holiday................................. 0Emergency fund.......................... 0Total monthly expenses.................. 234AssetsCash.................................... 2.98House value (Gross)..................... 0Shares and bonds........................ 0Car(s).................................. 0Other assets............................ 0Total Assets............................ 2.98Secured DebtsDescription....................Debt......Monthly...APRMortgage...................... 500000...(100)......6Total secured debts........... 500000....-.........- Unsecured DebtsDescription....................Debt......Monthly...APR1st CC.........................200.......23.68.....02nd CC.........................150.......5.........49Total unsecured debts..........350.......28.68.....- Monthly Budget SummaryTotal monthly income.................... 125Expenses (including secured debts)....... 234Available for debt repayments........... -109Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 28.68Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -137.68Personal Balance Sheet SummaryTotal assets (things you own)........... 2.98Total Secured debt...................... -500,000Total Unsecured debt.................... -350Net Assets.............................. -500,347.02Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com. Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.======== Enter any other useful information below ========


Edit: :eek: I'm sure it didn't used to do that :eek: I'm sure when i tested it originally it was all straight columns and everything pretty

Clariman

Okay-dokey. Well it isn't what I did last night then! I'm surprised that hasn't come to light before. I guess there are other IE6 users out there(?). Of the 12 combinations of browsers and discussion forum software, Internet Explorer and MSE was the most difficult. For some totally weird reason, Internet Explorer doesn't pick up a line break when the results are copied from the calculator to MSE. To get round that, I had to do some tricky coding that writes the line-break commands to the "Format for MSE" screen when the user is using Internet Explorer.

Sorry to bore you with that. It was good to get it off my chest again. It was a traumatic experience getting things to work in IE!

GeorgeUK

So you had to insert a "special character" or something? Based on the browser?
Kinda makes me glad i'm not smart enough to produce something like this

Edit: I did ctrl+a, ctrl+c then ctrl+v to do the copy and paste - doubt that'll make much difference, but...