Changelog

What’s new in RateString.

Improvements and fixes, newest first. We ship often.

July 14, 2026
  • Print a draft rating straight from the calculator: the Print button (and ⌘K → Print draft rating) now produces a clean one-page sheet — case facts, every rating string, the Combined Values fold, and the dollars — instead of a screenshot of the form. Nothing needs to be saved first.
  • Hover any case in the claim library to peek at its rating strings and combined value without opening it.
July 9, 2026
  • Split a rating across dates of injury: when the evaluator parcels apportionment between a specific injury and a CT (or up to three dates), the new Split DOI tool rates each date as its own case — its own era, rate year, and age at injury — with live per-DOI rating strings, a paste-ready summary for contribution negotiations, and one-click creation of the per-DOI cases (Benson-style separate awards). Splitting a case you already saved updates it in place as its own DOI — no duplicates.
  • The calculator now reports crashes to us automatically (no personal or case data), so bugs get fixed before you have to tell us.
  • TD exposure (Pro): enter the periods temporary disability was paid and the calculator tracks weeks against the §4656 cap — 104 weeks (or 240 for enumerated serious injuries) within five years of injury — with dollar totals at the TD rate.
  • One checkbox estimates §4650(d) exposure: the 10% self-imposed increase if PD payments ran late.
  • Ctrl+K now works in the calculator too — add an impairment, save, split by DOI, load the demo, print, or jump to any reference page from the keyboard.
  • Deleting an impairment row now offers a five-second Undo.
July 8, 2026
  • A plain-English glossary of every PD-rating term — WPI to life pension — with deep-linkable anchors (ratestring.com/glossary#cvc) and links into the guides.
  • An about page: what RateString is, who builds it, and how the engine is verified against the State’s own worked examples.
  • Two new guides: How Age Changes the Rating (the ten brackets, with the same case computed at 21, 40, and 62) and How Psychiatric Injuries Are Rated (GAF→WPI, a computed clerical-vs-laborer pair, and the §4660.1(c) limits).
  • The money chart now has a page per year of injury — /money-chart/2020 for a 2020 case — with the full 1–99% table computed for that year.
  • The calculator flags §4660.1(c): adding a psych impairment to a 2013+ physical-injury case now shows the add-on bar (and its violent-act / catastrophic exceptions) right on the rating.
  • Embed the money chart on your own site, free: a copy-paste widget with the live 1–99% table — grab the snippet at the bottom of the money chart page.
July 7, 2026
  • The PD money chart, reborn as a living page: every percentage 1–99%, weeks under §4658, the weekly rate for any injury year 2005–2026, and total indemnity — personalized to the worker’s actual wage in one field.
  • Three new guides: AME vs QME, How Your Occupation Changes the Rating, and California Workers’ Comp Settlement Value (Stips vs C&R, commutation, attorney fees).
  • Insights: your claim library, analyzed — filing pace, PD distribution, top body systems, and apportionment exposure, computed privately in your workspace.
  • Exhibits paginate cleanly in print and can append a per-impairment step trace — every segment of every rating string, shown with its source.
  • Optional night mode for the calculator and workspace (Settings → Appearance), alongside four accent themes.
  • Keyboard and screen-reader hardening: focus-trapped dialogs, a live rating readout, and a skip-to-content link.
July 6, 2026
  • A free public reference library: PD weekly rate caps for every year 2005–2026, all 45 occupational groups (with every one of the 1,812 titles mapped), body-system conversion pages, and plain-English guides — each figure computed by the same engine as the calculator.
  • Two new guides: How Apportionment Works (§4663/§4664) and The Combined Values Chart, Explained — including why apportionment costs more dollars than rating points, and what one point at the 70% life-pension threshold is worth.
  • Sharper on small screens: header navigation wraps cleanly and the landing page no longer scrolls sideways on phones.
July 2, 2026
  • Pre-2013 ratings are here: dates of injury from 2005–2012 now rate under the original 2005 PDRS FEC method — rank-based adjustment, era-correct rating strings like [5]45, and 2005–2012 statutory weekly rates.
  • Every data table in the engine — occupational variants, occupational adjustment, age adjustment, and the FEC grid — has been verified cell-by-cell against the official 2005 PDRS document.
  • The occupation list grew to 1,812 entries: ~45 titles the old list missed (and a few dozen “AND” titles) restored from the schedule.
  • The engine now reproduces the State’s own worked rating examples end-to-end — they run as permanent tests on every change.
July 1, 2026
  • Duplicate any saved rating into a fresh draft — model variations without touching the original.
  • Install RateString to your home screen: the calculator now works as an app on phone and desktop.
  • Exported exhibits save as PDFs named after the applicant — no more “document.pdf”.
  • The claim library shows full dates of injury, and scenario compare reads as clean stacked cards on your phone.
  • Newsletter signups now include a real one-click unsubscribe, and new trials get a proper welcome email.
June 30, 2026
  • Type or paste dates of injury and birth in any common format — no more matching an exact mask character by character.
  • Occupation and body-part menus now list every entry: occupations A→Z, impairments most-common first.
  • Hide any rating string — on a saved case or in a comparison — to watch the combined value update live.
  • Scenario compare, rebuilt: add or remove body parts per side, hide ratings on either side, and export the full side-by-side as an exhibit.
  • Editing a saved case is clearer: the action reads “Update case,” a banner shows whose rating you’re editing, and the calculator warns before you leave with unsaved work.
  • “New rating” opens a clean, blank calculator, and operative-report fields stay tucked away until a case names a physician.
  • A date of injury before the 2013 schedule is now flagged immediately, with earlier-year support on the way.
  • Exhibit branding (firm name + letterhead logo) now syncs to your account, so it follows you across devices — shared firm-wide for teams.
  • Clearer account menu in the header: your avatar, with quick access to your dashboard and sign-out from any page.
  • A prominent Sign-up path for new visitors.
  • Privacy-first product analytics with a consent banner — your case data is never recorded.
  • Rich link previews when RateString is shared in email, Slack, or messages.
June 29, 2026
  • Firm plan: a shared claim library, per-seat billing, member roles, and invite links for your whole office.
  • Separate ADJ # and Claim # fields on every case — for adjusters and attorneys who track each.
  • One-click “Copy all rating strings” from a saved case.
  • Cloud-backed case library so your saved ratings are available wherever you sign in.
June 28, 2026
  • Live at ratestring.com with secure accounts and exhibit-ready, branded PDF export.
  • Support is one email away: [email protected].