Creating a loan account

Question

(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?

me · Answer

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

Tom Young · Answer

"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 · Answer

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