Creating a loan account

me

(Quicken for Windows Premiere). I’ve created a loan account and actually paid off the loan. 

(1) when I created the loan account, quicken asked how much I owed. Is there anyway to associate that with a category so the amount I spent shows up as an expense?

(2) is there a way to view the loan account in a standard transaction view instead of the useless loan view?  

Tom Young

"(1) when I created the loan account, quicken asked how much I owed. Is there anyway to associate that with a category so the amount I spent shows up as an expense?"

That question is confusing.  The activity associated with the principal amount of a loan - getting the loan in the first place, then paying it off - happens entirely on your balance sheet.  First your cash increases when you get the loan and then your cash decreases when you pay off the loan.  There's no "Category" (Quicken-speak for "income and expense") at play here.

If for some reason you feel you do want to use a Category for a loan, you can of course, but "symmetry" demands then that the origination of the loan - when you get the cash - be counted as a form of "income" to be offset over time as a form of "expense" as you pay down the loan.  With a net result in the Category over time of $0.

That said, if you feel that you absolutely must show the payoff as a form of "expense" in a Spending report, even though all the principal activity happened in a balance sheet loan Account, you can do that by allowing transfers to be shown on that Spending report.  The quasi-expense will appear in the Expenses section of the report as "To [Name of Loan Account]."

"(2) is there a way to view the loan account in a standard transaction view instead of the useless loan view?"

I'm guessing that you set up the loan Account as a downloading loan, where you have no access to the loan register?

If that's correct then the top-of-head answer is "No" since there is no loan register.  However there is a FAQ that allows you to convert the loan from "downloading" to "manual", which should expose the loan register:

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

me

Tom:

Thanks for the help.  Disconnecting the loan account (then quitting and getting back into Quicken) gave me control of the register.

As to my first question, seeing the register confirmed my assumption.  Quicken creates the loan obligation (opening balance) by creating a transfer back to the original account (category = loan account) instead of allowing you to associate the opening balance with an expense (category = any expense account).  My hunch is you avoid this by associating the loan with an asset account (which I'll bet sets the opening balance category to the associated asset account).  

Rob

Tom Young

"Quicken creates the loan obligation (opening balance) by creating a transfer back to the original account (category = loan account) instead of allowing you to associate the opening balance with an expense (category = any expense account)."

Quicken uses this trick with every Account you create in Quicken.  As part of the creation process you're asked for an opening balance and statement date.  Quicken uses that date and opening balance amount as the first entry in the Account, with the offset being to the same Account.  The practical accounting effect of this entry is that your Net Worth is affected in the same amount.

You could, if you want, change that entry made by Quicken and substitute a Category in its place.  Your Net Worth would stay at the same as it was after Quicken's opening entry, but you'd see that opening balance amount swing through your Spending report with that Category functioning as a form of income.

me

Yes.  That is what I did and it worked perfectly.  If I had access to the transaction screen initially this would have been obvious.