How do I track scheduled loan payments?

In order to effectively manage loans and payments in iBank, first add a new account and choose the "Loan" type. After configuring the standard account options, enter all relevant information into the Loan Setup and Information sheet:

loan setup

To configure loan options:

Click the "Setup" tab in the Loan Setup and Information sheet, if it is not already selected. Configure the following options to match the details of your loan:

To view summary information about your loan payments:

Click the "Payment" tab in the Loan Setup and Information sheet:

loan payment summary

This sheet will show you an overview of your payment history, including the minimum payment amount, additional payments required with each payment (see below for more information), the total payment amount, and expected date for the entire loan to be paid off. Total interest and principal paid to date are displayed in the middle of the sheet, along with the number of payments made to date and total number remaining.

Any transfer into a loan account will be considered a loan payment by iBank. If you are not using scheduled transactions to track your loan payments automatically, be sure to enter your loans as transfers from one or more other accounts into the loan account, or iBank will not count them in the payment summary shown above.

If your loan payments include additional fees, such as taxes or surcharges, click the edit button on this sheet to enter them. The following sheet will appear:

additional loan payments

Click the plus and minus buttons to add and remove additional payments. Click the left side of each payment to choose a category to assign the payment to, and double-click the right side of each payment to enter the payment amount. click "OK" to return to the loan payment summary.

To view your payment schedule:

Click the "Payoff Schedule" tab in the Loan Setup and Information sheet:

loan payoff schedule

Here you will see a table displaying each payment with its scheduled due date, principal amount, interest rate, interest amount, and amount remaining to be paid on the original loan. As with any tabular view, click a column header to sort the list according to the values in that column. Click a second time to reverse the direction of the sort. This table cannot be edited directly; to make adjustments to your payment schedule, edit the settings under the "Setup" tab.

Payments are shown here with their projected amounts based on minimum requirements. Once you have entered a payment, the actual amounts will be shown in the payoff schedule table instead of the projected amounts.

To save a copy of your payment schedule for reference, click the export button and choose a location to save the file. iBank will generate a text file in CSV format for easy viewing in Excel or any other spreadsheet software.

If you have configured your loan correctly, you should see that the remaining amount after the last payment is "0.00". If there is still a remaining balance after the last payment, then check to make sure you have entered the correct total number of payments, and that the number of payments in the "Variable Interest Rate Setup" sheet adds up to match the total number of payments.

To automatically generate a scheduled payment for your loan:

Click the schedule recurring payment button and choose from the drop-down list which account you will use to make the payments. iBank will take you to the Scheduled Transactions pane and automatically create a scheduled transaction for your loan payments based on the information you entered in the Loan Setup and Information sheet. The first posting date for the scheduled transaction will be the due date you entered for the first payment. Subsequent transactions will be posted at the interval you specified.

iBank will only allow you to create one scheduled transaction for each loan account using the steps above. To generate a new scheduled payment from the Loan Setup and Information sheet, you must first delete the original payment from the scheduled transaction view.

When posted, the payment will appear as a split transaction: the capital amount will be transferred to the loan account, the interest will be allocated to your specified interest category, and each additional payment will be allocated to the categories you specified. The scheduled transaction can be edited at any time by clicking "Scheduled Transactions" in the source list.