A promissory note is a written promise to pay money to someone. Its primary function is to serve as written evidence of the amount of a debt and the terms under which it will be repaid, including the rate of interest (if any). This helps both the lender and borrower know exactly what the expectations and plans for repayment are.

This promissory note is often used when the borrower won’t be able to repay the loan for a period of months or years. It allows the borrower to make annual payments of interest only until the principal is due.

Important to Know

• If the lender and borrower decide to change the terms of a promissory note, use "Agreement to Modify Promissory Note."
• If the borrower does not repay you according to the terms of your promissory note, considering using " Demand for Overdue Repayment on Promissory Note."

Operating system: Windows- and Macintosh-compatible. The computer you use to purchase an eForm must be the same computer you will download it to. (For example, don't purchase the eForm using your computer at work if you intend to download it later on to your home computer; instead, wait until you're on the computer you intend to download the eForm to and then make your purchase. After you've downloaded the file, you will be able to "transfer" it to another computer by copying it to external media or by email.) In addition, you will not be able to download this file if:

• cookies are disabled on your computer, or
• a firewall prevents you from downloading files from the Internet.

Software: Before you can use an eForm, additional software must be installed:
To expand the ZIP archive you download after making your purchase, you'll need:

• A decompression utility such as the following, both of which can be downloaded for free:

• 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org) (for Windows users).
• StuffIt Expander (http://my.smithmicro.com/mac/stuffit/expander.html) (for Macintosh). Please note: Many recently manufactured Macs have a native capability to decompress zip files. See your computer's user manual for verification of this and instructions for access.

To open, fill out and print an eForm, you need a word processor that "reads" RTF (rich text format) files:

• Windows XP & Vista both come with WordPad, an RTF-compatible word processor.
• Macintosh OS X comes with TextEdit, an RTF-compatible word processor; non-OS X users need Word 5.0 or greater, WordPerfect 2.1 or greater, or another RTF-compatible word processor.