How do I remove an incorrect adjustment in a mortgage record?

chuck c

For an unknown reason Quicken added a payoff adjustment to my mortgage in September and I would like to remove it. It has been properly calculating P&I since set up tears ago. Does anyone know how to facilitate making this correction?

Tom Young

"For an unknown reason Quicken added a payoff adjustment to my mortgage in September and I would like to remove it."

Are you referring to some entry in the loan's register, or are you referring to something else, like the graph of the loan's pay down?

Since you're referring to Quicken properly calculating P&I I take it that you used Quicken's loan "wizard" to set up the loan and it's making entries into your checking Account for the payments.  Does the September payment look correct in all respects, including the split?  If you click the "View payment schedule" button under the "Payment Details" tab, do you see any interest rate adjustment or some other oddity?

chuck c

Yes, I used the loan wizard to set up the loan. The September split is correct in the checking register, however on the payment schedule in September it shows a payoff of the August balance.

Tom Young

If I'm understanding you correctly, the September P&I payment was correct but you're seeing another reduction of principle, in the amount of the August balance of the loan?  You're seeing that both in the window that comes up when you click "View payment schedule" and in the loan register itself, such the loan balance is either $0 or actually negative?

If that's the case then I'd expect that that "extra" amount has to be reflected somewhere, in some other Account, of Quicken.

Perhaps you can post some pictures of what you're seeing?

chuck c

screenshot of the entry attached

chuck c

That is the oddity, there is no offset in any other account

Tom Young

"That is the oddity, there is no offset in any other account "

No, there is an offset, the offset simply happens to refer to the mortgage loan Account itself.  That's Quicken's way of making what people call a "one-sided entry", although it's not.  The difference is made to your "equity" Account, an Account you can't see.

It looks to me like you really didn't use the loan wizard to set up a manual Account, it looks to me like you are downloading entries into the loan Account from the mortgage company?  (I have never set up a "download" mortgage, but I deduce that from the August payment, which I assume I'm seeing right above the big "payoff?")

As I understand it, if you set up a "download" loan you lose all ability to affect the loan's register.  I assume you attempted to to delete that payoff, but were unable to?

chuck c

I was downloading the transactions. The last time was in the second half of August. The entries on the payment page cannot be deleted.

Tom Young

All I can guess at is that the pay down download came from the mortgage company since Quicken doesn't make any entries to that Account. 

The general advise in here is to not use a download loan since you have no access to the loan's register.

If I was in this situation what I'd do is create a new mortgage Account using the August ending balance as the initial loan amount and tell the loan wizard what it needs to know, like origination date (8/15/20), mortgage rate, remaining loan term, etc. and run the loan manually from now on.  Someone has posted a way to change a downloading loan to a manual loan here

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7164936/faq-how-do-i-convert-a-loan-account-that-automatically-downloads-transactions-to-a-manual-entry-sc

but of course I've never tried it.  Be sure to make a backup whichever course you take.

(Since I've never set up a download load in Quicken, I have wondered how the accounting works.  Let's say you monthly payment is $1,000 and you have a manual loan.  In the checking Account that payment would be split between the loan Account - the principal paydown - and interest.  But if you have a download loan the mortgage company has already made that "one-sided" entry for the principal, leaving the question how the actual payment shows up in the checking Account.  Does that entry, too, have a "one-sided" entry for the principal amount?)

chuck c

Thanks!!