Mortgage Payments Not Reflected in the Transaction History on Loan Screen

Kevin Russell

I recently figured out how to properly get my mortgage payments to flow through to the budget and reports, but my bi-weekly mortgage payments are still not showing in the transaction history log on the actual loan screen.

Thus, my mortgage balance never decreases and only reflects my opening balance. Payment Details are correct, mortgage bill reminder is correct, budget is correct and all flows through to reports correctly. Just no running decrement of my mortgage balance on the loan screen.

Is there a setting I'm missing?

volvogirl

How are you making the payments?  What is the category or split categories on the payment transaction in your checking account (or wherever)?  The payment should be a split to Interest Expense and split to the Mortgage Loan Account.  You need to enter the Mortgage Loan principal part as a Transfer by using square brackets [ ] around the account name in the Category field like [Mortgage Loan].  

NotACPA

Are you, perhaps, downloading into this mortgage account?  If so, then ONLY the downloaded principal payment will EVER be recorded in the mortgage account.  You'll have no access to it.

Kevin Russell

I think I must be missing the Transfer portion of that. My split categories are the default ones in Quicken of "Mortgage Principal", "Mortgage Interest", and "Mortgage Escrow". So, should my split be [House Loan] which is the principal and then still have the other splits be Interest and Escrow/Taxes?

Kevin Russell

> @volvogirl said:
> How are you making the payments?  What is the category or split categories on the payment transaction in your checking account (or wherever)?  The payment should be a split to Interest Expense and split to the Mortgage Loan Account.  You need to enter the Mortgage Loan principal part as a Transfer by using square brackets [ ] around the account name in the Category field like [Mortgage Loan].  

I think I must be missing the Transfer portion of that. My split categories are the default ones in Quicken of "Mortgage Principal", "Mortgage Interest", and "Mortgage Escrow". So, should my split be [House Loan] which is the principal and then still have the other splits be Interest and Escrow/Taxes?

volvogirl

Yes right exactly.

Kevin Russell

> @volvogirl said:
> Yes right exactly.

So now when I update my past transaction in my checking account register it will only reflect the principal portion of the mortgage payment and if try to add back in the Interest and Escrow split lines it tells me I have to make that change back over in the loan transaction screen. Yet, when I go to the loan transaction screen and make those changes they then don't reflect back in my checking register so now my loan transaction screen reflects my full mortgage payment while my checking account ledger only reflects the principal portion of the payment.

Lol. Maddening.

garysmith87

You make your loan payment from your checking account register.

The split lines should be:

[Mortgage Loan] for the principal amount of the loan, where Mortgage Loan is replaced by the actual name of your loan account in Quicken, enclosed in square brackets.

Mortgage Interest for the interest amount of the loan.

[Escrow Account] for the escrowed taxes and/or insurance amount, where Escrow Account is replaced by the actual name of your escrow account in Quicken, enclosed in square brackets.

You DO not make any entries in the Loan account register.  The principal transfer will show up there as a transfer from the checking account entry you made previously.  

And if you'd set up a scheduled transaction from the loan account register instructions, and set the payment to be automatically entered a day or two prior to the due date of the month, you won't need to do anything as the correct amortization of the principal and interest will be calculated for you.  

What's missing in your last post is you need to have an asset escrow account...and a transfer of that amount to that account for the escrowed payment amount included in your mortgage payment.

And when your bank pays any amount from the escrow, you just add a payment from that account.  There is NO payment from your checking account, as the money comes directly from that escrow account as if it were a savings account.  

Kevin Russell

> @garysmith87 said:
> You make your loan payment from your checking account register.
>
> The split lines should be:
>
> [Mortgage Loan] for the principal amount of the loan, where Mortgage Loan is replaced by the actual name of your loan account in Quicken, enclosed in square brackets.
>
> Mortgage Interest for the interest amount of the loan.
>
> [Escrow Account] for the escrowed taxes and/or insurance amount, where Escrow Account is replaced by the actual name of your escrow account in Quicken, enclosed in square brackets.
>
> You DO not make any entries in the Loan account register.  The principal transfer will show up there as a transfer from the checking account entry you made previously.  
>
> And if you'd set up a scheduled transaction from the loan account register instructions, and set the payment to be automatically entered a day or two prior to the due date of the month, you won't need to do anything as the correct amortization of the principal and interest will be calculated for you.  
>
> What's missing in your last post is you need to have an asset escrow account...and a transfer of that amount to that account for the escrowed payment amount included in your mortgage payment.
>
> And when your bank pays any amount from the escrow, you just add a payment from that account.  There is NO payment from your checking account, as the money comes directly from that escrow account as if it were a savings account.  

Thank you! I've always used a scheduled transaction. The only missing thing I had was the Escrow Account. That seems to have resolved it.

I've never been able to get Quicken to exactly match the balance at Chase for my mortgage, but I'm fine with it as long as it's reasonably close (a few hundred dollars). Quicken has never seemed to be able to produce the same amortization schedule as any of my mortgage lenders for whatever reason. Have always just assumed it was a SW calculation issue with timing.

garysmith87

If you have a "standard" (15 year or 30 year) fixed rate mortgage, Quicken's amortization schedule is exact.

What may be throwing your entries off is that you have mis-entered one of the loan parameters.  In most cases, it's the starting balance or the opening date or the ACTUAL interest rate.  

If your amortization schedule in Quicken doesn't match Chase's, you need to investigate where the difference is.  Go to Loan Details in the loan register and make sure you've entered all the parameters correctly.  The Monthly Payment (the last line in the Loan Details) should be your loan principal and interest ONLY...without any escrow amount included.  

I've setup several mortgage loans in Quicken (due to re-fi's and new purchases) and Quicken has always amortized the loan correctly and matched my monthly principal and interest amounts.  

Kevin Russell

> @garysmith87 said:
> If you have a "standard" (15 year or 30 year) fixed rate mortgage, Quicken's amortization schedule is exact.
>
> What may be throwing your entries off is that you have mis-entered one of the loan parameters.  In most cases, it's the starting balance or the opening date or the ACTUAL interest rate.  
>
> If your amortization schedule in Quicken doesn't match Chase's, you need to investigate where the difference is.  Go to Loan Details in the loan register and make sure you've entered all the parameters correctly.  The Monthly Payment (the last line in the Loan Details) should be your loan principal and interest ONLY...without any escrow amount included.  
>
> I've setup several mortgage loans in Quicken (due to re-fi's and new purchases) and Quicken has always amortized the loan correctly and matched my monthly principal and interest amounts.  

I do a bi-weekly payment so in the Loan Details payment screen I have:

Principal - Amount
Interest - Amount
Other - Amount (this is the Transfer to Escrow)
Extra Principal paid bi-weekly - Amount (I've never understood the point of this line item and the toggle switch associated with it)

Total Payment - Amount

Are you saying that the Total Payment field should just be Principal and Interest? Right now it's the total of the 4 above lines. My initial loan parameters are correct. I've actually set this up more than once to try and get the numbers to align and have never been able to get it right. The principal and interest amount immediately gets out of alignment with Chase.

garysmith87

Oy.  I would have been prudent to have mentioned that you use a bi-weekly payment schedule for your mortgage.

Have you tried to alter the Loan Details or re-set up the loan?  Have you set up the Payment Schedule to "Every other week"?  From the main Loan Details screen, select Edit Terms.  Is Payment Schedule set to "Every other week"?

Was your original loan from Chase set up as a bi-weekly loan?  Or do you just make payments every two weeks on your own outside of the loan terms?  

I just tried a sample mortgage using Every other week, and it seems that the amortization schedule is correct.  But, I don't have any bank statement to compare this with, so your mileage may vary.  

Kevin Russell

Yes, I've re-set up the loan a few times to try and get it synced. No dice. It was originally a basic 30 yr loan and I then switched it to bi-weekly payments aka "every other week" with Chase, so I assume the misalignment is do to that. I don't think Quicken can handle changing the payment terms mid stream from monthly payments to every other week payments.

Plus Chase does a funky process (at least to me) where after you change from monthly to every other week they charge you an extra payment on the front end of that change which I think plays havoc with Quicken.