PHTools

Editorial Policy & Methodology

Last Updated: June 2026

PHTools was built to provide the Philippine digital ecosystem with free, fast, and mathematically accurate utility calculators. Because our tools directly calculate financial, academic, and tax data (falling strictly under Google's Your Money or Your Life criteria), we adhere to the highest standards of journalistic and algorithmic accuracy.

1. Formula Sourcing and Statutory Reality

Our calculators are built with the help of modern tooling, including AI, but no number is ever taken on trust. Every financial calculation algorithm on PHTools is traced back to, and verified against, official primary sources, and reviewed by a human before publishing:

  • Taxation: Sourced directly from Republic Act No. 10963 (TRAIN Law) and official Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Revenue Memorandum Circulars.
  • Labor & Payroll:Derived from the Philippine Labor Code, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Handbook on Workers' Statutory Monetary Benefits, and official circulars from SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG.
  • Academe: Modeled explicitly after the official grading systems published by the University of the Philippines system and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

2. The "Fact-Checked By PHTools" Process

Before any calculator is pushed to production, it undergoes a rigorous lifecycle:

  1. Conceptualization:The relevant statutory framework — the governing law and the official issuances from BIR, SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, and DOLE — is studied in detail, and the calculator's logic is derived directly from those primary sources.
  2. Code Engineering: The algorithm is written in strict TypeScript to prevent rounding errors and float precision bugs common in JavaScript.
  3. Edge-Case Testing: The calculator is subjected to automated unit tests (using Jest/Vitest) spanning minimum wage earners up to executive-tier salaries to ensure the tax brackets scale perfectly.
  4. Contextual Writing: A comprehensive 1,000+ word methodological guide is appended below the tool to explain the underlying formulas to our users.

3. Corrections and Updates

Our calculators are updated whenever new legislation or revised official rates take effect (e.g., scheduled PhilHealth premium increases). If you discover a calculation discrepancy, please reach out to our Lead Developer, Simonee Ezekiel Mariquit, at semariquit@gmail.com. Upon acknowledgment, the algorithm will be audited and patched immediately.