I can't bring in Loan accounts to budget the principal only

gogottliebs88

Currently I have my loan payments split between a principal loan account and the interest account, an example would be my mortgage payment it is split between the Mortgage: Interest Category in Expenses and the Loan Account "BankX" Loan. If I bring in the Loan, Quicken does not bring in the principal only in actuals, instead it brings in the the interest amount? How can I budget the Loan principal and have it show the budget and actuals correctly?

Tom Young

I'm getting lost in the sentence starting with "If I bring in the Loan..."  What are you referring to here?  Are you talking about selecting the "BankX Loan" Account as an Account that "feeds" information to the budgeting process available under the Planning tab and into Current Budget Reports?

If that's the case, then you don't want that particular Account selected as part of the budgeting/reporting process because all the information you're looking for is already contained in the bank Account.  In the budgeting process click Manage Budget Categories and select Transfers Out.  Then click on "TO [BankX Loan]."  That will make that loan Account show up as a form of "Category" for budgeting purposes and the principal portion of the payment from your bank Account will show up as a form of "expense." 

You do essentially the same thing over in the Current Budget Report.

If I've misinterpreted what you're asking for, post back.

gogottliebs88

Tom,

Thanks for the help, your answer solved my dilemma!

Tom Young

I'm getting lost in the sentence starting with "If I bring in the Loan..."  What are you referring to here?  Are you talking about selecting the "BankX Loan" Account as an Account that "feeds" information to the budgeting process available under the Planning tab and into Current Budget Reports?

If that's the case, then you don't want that particular Account selected as part of the budgeting/reporting process because all the information you're looking for is already contained in the bank Account.  In the budgeting process click Manage Budget Categories and select Transfers Out.  Then click on "TO [BankX Loan]."  That will make that loan Account show up as a form of "Category" for budgeting purposes and the principal portion of the payment from your bank Account will show up as a form of "expense." 

You do essentially the same thing over in the Current Budget Report.

If I've misinterpreted what you're asking for, post back.

gogottliebs88

Tom,

Thanks for the help, your answer solved my dilemma!

Chris Wagner

Having the same issue, I clicked Manage Budget Categories and selected Transfers Out. I clicked TO [Mortgage Loan] (my loan category). when I launched my budget report I indeed saw the category appear in the OUTFLOWS section. My question: Where does the principal amount in the budget column come from? That is how is it derived? Is it coming from the loan setup in the Property & Debt section? I would like to adjust that figure because it's not quite right, but I don't know how to get to it? Any clues?

Tom Young

"My question: Where does the principal amount in the budget column come from?"

Information for Spending reports comes from Accounts.  Normally it would come from your checking Account as the principal portion of each monthly payment.

"That is how is it derived?"

(I assume the correct version of this sentence is "How is it derived?"

That depends on how you're managing your loan.  If you're running the loan Account entirely manually - making payments according to some amortization schedule in your possession or monthly statement from the lender -  then that's how it's derived and if you're entering the payments in your checking Account according to the amortization schedule of statement, that's what you should be seeing in the report.  If you set up the loan using the Loan Wizard then the amortization schedule derived in Quicken should be the source.  The Loan Wizard should be entering those payments in your checking Account.

Chris Wagner

Thanks, Tom. "How is it derived?" was my question. More specifically, how is the Budget amount derived? I'm good with the actuals. When I run a budget report I get the following (excerpt):

Category Actual 2022 Budget
TO Mortgage-Home 533.90 6,875.00

It's the $6,875 budgeted number that I am having a hard time tracing.