Am I Missing Something Or Is Mortgage Budgeting an Inconsistent Mess?

NotFrankB

On the Planning page for My Budget I can click on "Manage Budget Categories" then select "Detailed Loan Payments" and finally check the box next to "My Mortgage Lender" (or whatever my mortgage account is called).

If I do that, my total monthly loan payment amount (i.e., Principal + Interest + Escrow + anything else) appears on the budget planning page as a line item for "My Mortgage Lender" under a total line item for "Detailed Loan Payments".

So far, so good. The Planning page shows a budgeted amount of $X to be paid to my mortgage lender every month and shows an actual amount of $X that was paid.

But now, let's say I run a Spending Report for my Current Budget.

On that report "My Mortgage Lender" appears as a line item at the very bottom of the report. But, the Actual for that line item only shows the Interest paid while the Budget still shows the total loan payment amount that was budgeted. The Principal, Escrow and any other components of the payment made to the lender do not appear anywhere in the report.

Of course, this leaves the appearance that I'm well under budget each month - or at least substantially decreases the amount by which I'm over budget for the month.

UKR

Does your monthly mortgage payment transaction transfer Principal (and optional Additional Principal) to the mortgage account register? Similar to this:

If so, in Budgets include these:

• Transfer to [mortgage account register] for Principal, Additional Principal
• the mortgage Interest Category
• the escrow as Transfer To [escrow account register]

Payments made by the mortgage company from Escrow for PMI, property taxes, etc. should be recorded as separate transaction in the Escrow account register and categorized as Expenses. Include those in Budgets, too. Applies to Interest credited in escrow account and other activities, too.