I use something like Michael's approach with paychecks, but my simple
workaround is that I enter the correct amount deposited to my checking
account (that *is* what I'm most interested in!), using a previous pay
transaction as the template. Inevitably, IT DOES NOT BALANCE, and I end
up with an entry in Imbalance-USD, which I monitor for zero balance.
My workaround with my mortgage is to download the transaction history
for the mortgage once a year (more frequently, if I'm feeling twitchy),
and then I reconcile the MORTGAGE principle account. If the transactions
there are "N", then I know I need to check them for accuracy.
For Stephen's use case, I don't see how creating inaccurate entries
using the loan scheduler is somehow better than creating inaccurate
entries using other techniques.
David T.
On 12/16/2021 4:36 PM, David Carlson wrote:
I think that it would be possible to use the loan wizard to build a
Scheduled loan payment Transaction pointing to an Unallocated Funds account
that could be used just as Michael suggested, adjusting for the correct
interest amount when the value is known.
I need to try that.
On Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 12:55 PM Stephen M. Butler <
stephen.m.butle...@gmail.com> wrote:
On 12/16/21 10:05, Michael or Penny Novack wrote:
It might perhaps be better to describe WHAT you want to accomplish
instead of asking about possibilities for the first HOW that came to
your mind. Why? Because there might be other "hows" even simpler.
On 12/16/2021 2:25 AM, AC wrote:
For example, I have a couple loans that are paid fixed amounts each
month but the split of principal and interest varies (of course). I
have automatic payments at the bank set up to pay those fixed amounts
regularly and I have a matching scheduled transaction in GnuCash that
is a placeholder for it so I know how much comes out of my checking
account. What I don't know at that moment is the split between
principal and interest.
I'll reword that -- you don't have access (in advance) to the
amortization schedule and even if you did, would not help with an
automated transaction (but would if a manual transaction_
When the payment has gone through I will check the loan records
wherever the loan is held to see how they distributed the payment and
then go back and update the splits to reflect that.
I do a similar thing for my paychecks, setting up a scheduled
transaction with an estimated amount across splits and then go back
to update the splits with the various amounts withheld from the check
(I mark these as "Deposit").
Let's stop here for a second to describe your PROCESS. In either case,
you first need to be able to have an automatic transaction (unsplit)
that you later need to go back to in order to split once you have the
information to do that. You think you need a "marker" of some sort to
find the transaction later, to mark the ones you have not yet done.
But what was the other side of the transaction?. Let's do the loan one
first. That was an automatic (scheduled) transaction, credit to your
bank account and debit to (there are always tow sides in double entry
bookkeeping) what? Let's say for am moment you had an account under
Expense with a name like "unallocated loan payments".
Every so often you look. Is the balance of this account zero? No, then
you have a loan payment you have not yet allocated to principle and
interest. Assuming enough time has passed that you have that
information, Enter split mode. Change the account "unallocated loan
payments" to "interest" and the amount to what that portion is. The
remainder will now have an account Imbalance which you change to "loan
principle".
Now THAT transaction will no longer appear in "unallocated loan
payments" << and if there are no other payments still not allocated
the balance of the account will be zero >>
In other words, the very presence of a transaction in "unallocated
loan balance" can serve as your "marker" and is the transaction you
want to split. You can do the same for your paychecks, except you
would use an account under Income "unallocated paychecks".
Michael D Novack
Why not point to the loan wizard and how it can setup an automated
transaction schedule? Sure, it is off a few pennies every so often but
if a person is looking at the loan details a their bank (or get a
monthly statement) it is easy to adjust the existing transactions.
Once you understand the resulting schedule formula, you can modify for
extra monthly payments and won't need the wizard to setup the next loan.
--
Stephen M Butler, PMP, PSM
stephen.m.butle...@gmail.com
kg...@arrl.net
253-350-0166
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