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Paying monthly liability in one tranaction

Ross Peebles

I’ll try to make this as simple as possible. I am using the latest version of Quicken for Mac. I keep a Net Worth Sheet and a P&L for our family. Here’s the problem, need a solution. I want to, in a single pay transaction, pay the principal due on my asset, interest due applying it to the category interest on my P&L, and the principal also entered as a category on my P&L because it is an outgoing cash amount. This leaves me with a 4th line on my transaction (P&L) but no category to charge it to.
Attached is my solution, but it’s not a good one.

Many have been waiting a number of years for a solution, but we have heard nothing yet.

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Comments

jacobs

When you pay a loan, there are typically three splits. Using made up numbers:

Transaction main amount: –$1,000 (this is the cash amount withdrawn from your checking account
Transfer to loan liability account: –$700 (this is your principal payment)
Interest Expense: –$300

That's it. I'm not sure why you have an extra line for principal; the transfer is your principal payment. And that's why you have an extra line with nowhere to go. So if you delete the last two line of your split, everything would seem to be in order. What more are you trying to accomplish?

Ross Peebles

What I'm trying to accomplish: TO SHOW $700 HAS REDUCED THE CASH ON HAND IN ALL REPORTS. In addition to the $700 going to pay down the principal liability, I want it to show as a cash expense in the budget. It then shows as an expense when you print the budget report. Otherwise, your budget is falsely showing your cash flow as being $700 better off than you really are.

I never took accounting, but I do know that the +/- have to balance. That's why I use a category called "not used" and hide it in all reports. You might say that the $700 should be in cash flow report, but that would be just another report I don't need.

I welcome another solution, even a true accounting solution if there is one. Please advise.

jacobs

@Ross Peebles Aha, now you've clarified the key point: you're trying to make this work in your budget. The simple fact is that cash flow transactions between two accounts such as paying down a loan, which are not expenses (even though they may feel that way in your pocketbook), are not currently supported in Quicken Mac.

This has been a longstanding complaint of Quicken Mac budget users. The good news is that the product manager for Quicken Mac has long ago acknowledged this need, and committed to addressing it in Quicken Mac. Things were quiet for a long, long time, but there have been developments in recent months that seem to indicate progress towards budgeting for selected transfers. First, Quicken Mac gained the capability to selectively include/exclude transfer in reports. Then, Quicken Mac gained the capability to select which accounts to include in budgets. If you connect the dots, the next step is being able to select which transfers to include in budgets. We don't know when any feature will be released, but there's good reason to think it's finally coming soon.

Meanwhile, anything you do to create dummy pieces of transactions is a workaround, as you have figured out. I don't know of any truly satisfactory way to do it. My suggestion is to wait a little longer until Quicken Mac gains the capability to include loan principal payments in budgets.

Ross Peebles

Jacob, you are the 1st one who has taken the time to understand what I am asking and what I am doing in the meantime. I want you to know it is greatly appreciated. I have my doubts that Quicken will ever address this. I say this because I look at some of the "upgrades" they do and announce with such fanfare. From my standpoint, most of their upgrades are frivolous when compared to the problem in question which I personally feel is a major problem.

jacobs

@“Ross Peebles” I think the recent updates to reports, and the first of multiple updates to budgets, have been meaningful. They address things many, many users have been clamoring for for a long time. While the progress is slower than everyone would wish, I feel good about the progress and direction. We all use Quicken differently, so everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But I’ll reiterate that I think the signs all point to transfers in budgets in the near future. Only time will tell if I’m right or you are. 😀

jacobs

Actually, I now see that Quicken has pre-announced this functionality is coming in the next release: "In our upcoming release, v5.18, we’re taking that budgeting ability one step further. Now, you’ll be able to budget transfers between one account and another." You can read this in a Quicken blog entry that has more description of how it works. It's very unusual for them to announce a feature before it ships, so I guess that means it's really, really close to being ready.

In some of the recent feature additions, the first release has proven to have holes or not work like everyone would prefer, but the developers have listened and gone back for second and third iterations on new features to add controls, preferences, and additional tweaks to generally satisfy most users -- so if the first release of transfer in budgets isn't 100% of what you have hoped it will be, make sure you comment in a thread abut the new release when it happens, and hopefully the next release will refine the feature more.