Budgeting Loan Equity Payments

Chris Mead

Hi
I am still struggling with the budget versus actual reporting. I am paying off several loans which are set as debt accounts. As I pay these loans, the transaction is split between the interest expenses and the transfer to reduce the debt. I have included the loan buy downs as part of my budget - because I need to use cash to reduce the loans.

The problem is that in seeing the actual costs to align to the budget, the dollar transfer to the loan does not align. It looks like I am way under budget from from a cash flow perspective I am not. To me, it looks like a third category in budgeting needs to be created to align to transfers to loan accounts.

Any idea out there?
Chris

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @Chris Mead,

Thank you for attempting this and posting back with the results, although I apologize that you're still experiencing difficulties.

To clarify, Quicken supports the categorization of a Linked Transfer, and in doing so, the transaction will be included in category-based reporting as appropriate.


You may consider contacting Support directly for more advanced assistance, as using a Linked Transfer should allow you to accomplish this. 

https://www.quicken.com/support#contact-support

Support has access to tools and information that the Community does not have, including the ability to screen share with you, and can best work with you towards a resolution.

In regards to a Debt Reduction tool, please see this existing Idea thread requesting that this feature be added to Quicken for Mac. Note that the Idea is marked as "Planned", so this may be a useful tool for you once it is implemented into the program.

Please let me know if there is anything more that I or the Community can do to assist you! 

Thank you,

Quicken Natalie

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @Chris Mead,

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue to the Community, although I apologize that you have not yet received a response.

What version/release of Quicken are you using? You can find that by going to Quicken>About Quicken. Also, please see this FAQ for details on adding more information to your post so that other Community members are best able to assist you.

If you have not already done so, please see the information available here and here, for more details on Loan Management and Budgeting in Quicken for Mac.

Please let us know if these Support Articles are insightful and/or help to resolve this issue for you. 

Thank you,

Quicken Natalie

Chris Mead

Hi Natalie,
Thank you for the response. My MAC version is: Version 5.15.1 (Build 515.32947.100).

I have read those articles in the past. The issue here is "Transfer." Transfer is not counted. Is there a better way than what I do? I have a checking account which in turn pays off a loan. The payment is split with one part going to interest (it is counted against the budget) and the other is a transfer to reduce the liability of the paid-to account. That is not counted.

So when I budget, how do I budget for cash outflows as a result of paying off loans?

That is the core issue.

Chris

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @Chris Mead,

Thank you for providing additional clarification!

The "Transfer" category is always ignored by the Budget because it is considered neither an income or an expense.

You may consider using a "Linked Transfer" instead, which allows the category to be changed to an expense category, while still keeping the link that shows money flowing from your checking account to the liability account.

You can do this by adding the "Transfer" column to your checking account, editing the transaction to replace the category with an expense category, and then using the "Transfer" column to create the link to the liability account.



Once you've edited the transaction, you'll want to be sure that the category used for this is also included in your Budget categories.

For more details, please see this Support Article.

Let us know if this helps to resolve this matter for you!

-Quicken Natalie

Chris Mead

Hi Natalie

Quite an interesting transaction but unfortunately, it does not resolve the issue. I noted in the instructions that "Linked Transfers" are also excluded from expense reporting.

But with interest, I did find the "extra" field called transfer and gave it a try. I created a theoretical Solar loan and attempted to split the interest and the loan principle. I selected an expense account called "Loans: Solar" which is budgeted. "OS DEALER DIR" is the name of the loan account (i.e. the Debt").

The result was that I saw the transfer of 8,176.63 arrive in the debt account (that is good.) But I did not see the same amount also registered to the expense account named, "Loans: Solar". Therefore, even though I budgeted money to pay off the loan, I am not able to reconcile that budgeted amount to an actual amount. In the overall transaction report, it looks like I have a bunch of cash left over "[Income] - [Expense]" where in reality it was used to pay off a liability.

One way around this mess would be to enable budgeting reduction of debt. Think of the power in that. Maybe there is a way and I don't see it.

Chris

Quicken_Natalie

Hello @Chris Mead,

Thank you for attempting this and posting back with the results, although I apologize that you're still experiencing difficulties.

To clarify, Quicken supports the categorization of a Linked Transfer, and in doing so, the transaction will be included in category-based reporting as appropriate.


You may consider contacting Support directly for more advanced assistance, as using a Linked Transfer should allow you to accomplish this. 

https://www.quicken.com/support#contact-support

Support has access to tools and information that the Community does not have, including the ability to screen share with you, and can best work with you towards a resolution.

In regards to a Debt Reduction tool, please see this existing Idea thread requesting that this feature be added to Quicken for Mac. Note that the Idea is marked as "Planned", so this may be a useful tool for you once it is implemented into the program.

Please let me know if there is anything more that I or the Community can do to assist you! 

Thank you,

Quicken Natalie