How to get Loan payments to show as an Expense on Reports by Category

chrisboat1

When you set up a loan in Quicken the payment comes out of your bank account and then shows as a transfer to the loan. That transfer consists of a split transaction one with principal amount and one with interest amount. The problem is the payment does not show up as a categorized expense on Spending Reports by Category. If the loan was to buy something like a new computer you never see an expense to the Computer expense category.

To make it work. Create an asset account for example New Computer with a value equal to what your total payments will be. While setting it up link it to the loan.

Now when the payment for the Computer goes through with the 2 split category items of interest and principal add 2 more split lines. One would be for the expense category Computer with the amount of the the total principal and interest and the other would be for the asset account New Computer with the amount being the total principal and interest but a negative.

Now
1. The loan amount will work perfectly,
2. Your New Computer asset will decrease in value each month by the total expense amount,
that now shows in Your reports of Expenses.
3. The Computer will show as an Expense on all reports showing expenses.

volvogirl

Where did you enter the loan originally when you set it up?  That was the expense to the computer category.  For the full amount of the loan at the beginning.  And that's when you enter the whole amount on your tax return.