This assistant creates a loan repayment scheduled transaction. When used to setup a scheduled transaction, the assistant creates a variable formula so that the compounding interest is correctly calculated. To start this assistant manually go to Actions → → .
It does not support zero-interest loans, but one doesn't really need an assistant for that: Just create a scheduled transaction for the principal divided by the number of payments that lasts for the number of payments. For example, if one has borrowed $1200 for a year at no interest and promised to pay it back in monthly installments, the repayment schedule is $100 monthly for twelve months.
The Mortgage and Loan Repayment assistant opens with a screen that briefly describes what this assistant does. The three buttons at the very bottom of the screen will not change while using the assistant.
The button is used to exit the assistant and cancel creating the scheduled transaction. Any selections you have made in this assistant up to this point will be lost.
The button will bring up the previous screen so you can change a selection made on that screen.
The button will bring up the next screen so you can continue though the assistant.
The next screen allows you to enter the basic loan information. This is usually the information provided by the bank when loan and disclosure documents are given to the borrower. Here you can also setup an account that the scheduled transaction will use to enter the payment transaction.
Loan Account: Choose an account for the loan payment transactions or use New... to setup a new account for the transactions.
Loan Amount: Enter the amount of the loan.
Interest Rate: Enter the loan interest rate in percent per compounding period. The Assistant supports rates between .001% and 100%.
Type: Choose the type of loan. If an adjustable rate is used the frequency screen is enabled.
Interest Rate Change Frequency: Choose the frequency for the rate change and the start date of the rate change.
Start Date: Choose the date the loan is starting on.
Length: Enter the length of the loan with the number and period, e.g. 60 months or 5 years.
Months Remaining: This tells the Assistant how many months remain on the loan. The default value assumes that the loan is paid up through today. For example, if a 5-year loan started on 1 January 2012 and today is 12 July 2015, the default months remaining is 18. If you want to create past payment transactions you'll set the months remaining accordingly: In our example, if you wanted to create all of the payments you'd set "months remaining" to 60; if you wanted to start tracking the payments at the beginning of 2015 you'd enter 24.
The next screen is used to set escrow, insurance and tax options for the loan. It is mainly used for mortgage payments. When each of the options here is set, this enables additional pages in the assistant to setup those portions of the payments. All of the pages will be described here, even though some may not show if that option is not chosen.
... utilize an escrow account for payments?: This selection enables the use of an account setup for tracking escrow payments. If the mortgage or loan uses an escrow account to pay taxes, insurance, etc then setup an account here.
... pay "Taxes"?: adds an additional page to setup a scheduled transaction to pay taxes.
... pay "Insurance"?: adds an additional page to setup a scheduled transaction to pay insurance payments.
... pay "PMI"?: adds an additional page to setup a scheduled transaction to pay PMI payments.
... pay "Other Expense"?: adds an additional page to setup a scheduled transaction to pay other expenses.
The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the Loan Repayment.
Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.
Payment Amount: Shows the variable used to calculate the payment amount.
Payment From: Choose an account to pay the loan amount from.
Principal To: Choose an account to transfer the principal part of the loan to.
Interest To: Choose an account to transfer the interest part of the loan to.
Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for loan repayments. Note that the start date will be the posted date of the first scheduled transaction. This is not taken into account for calculating the remaining duration of the loan, see Months Remaining:. Make sure that you set both to reflect your intentions or you may get surprising results.
The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the Tax payment.
Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.
Amount: Enter the payment amount.
Payment From: Choose an account to pay the tax amount from.
Payment To: Choose an account to transfer the tax payment to.
Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for tax payments.
The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the Insurance payment.
Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.
Amount: Enter the payment amount.
Payment From: Choose an account to pay the insurance amount from.
Payment To: Choose an account to transfer the insurance payment to.
Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for insurance payments.
The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the PMI payment.
Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.
Amount: Enter the payment amount.
Payment From: Choose an account to pay the PMI amount from.
Payment To: Choose an account to transfer the PMI payment to.
Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for PMI payments.
The next screen is used to setup the details of the scheduled transaction for the Other Expense payment.
Transaction Memo: The name entered here will be used as the name for the scheduled transaction, the description of the scheduled transaction and the memo.
Amount: Enter the payment amount.
Payment From: Choose an account to pay the other expense amount from.
Payment To: Choose an account to transfer the other expense payment to.
Repayment Frequency: Select the Frequency and start date for other expense payments.
The last screen gives you a list of three choices to finish the assistant.
The button is used to exit the assistant and cancel creating a new loan scheduled transaction. Any selections you have made in this assistant up to this point will be lost.
The Back button will bring up the previous screen so you can change a selection made on that screen.
The Finish button creates the scheduled transaction.
You should now have the Mortgage or Loan Repayment scheduled transaction setup.