How to set up a Loan Account

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Dicksonap
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How to set up a Loan Account

Post by Dicksonap »

I have a car loan. Using the loan data in a few online amortization calculators I can successfully get an amortization table that shows the correct balance after each monthly payments. (At least within a few dollars of the amount my bank tells me. The bank has my initial loan in dollars and cents - the amortization calculators round to the nearest dollar.) I don’t get correct balances using an MMEX Loan Account, probably because I’m not entering the data correctly OR because a Loan Account in MMEX isn’t what I assume it is.
The data I have is as follows:
Initial loan amount;
Annual interest rate;
Loan term;
Loan start data.
I don’t find the terms in the loan setup in MMEX are that simple. Here’s what I’ve tried using the “Edit Account” box:
Initial Loan Amount = Initial Balance (as a negative value)
Loan start data = Opening Date (the month before my first payment)
Then under “Statement”
?What do I enter in Reconciled Date?
?What is my Minimum Bal?
Under “Credit”
?What is my Credit Limit?
Annual interest rate = Interest Rate
?What do I enter in Payment Due Date?
?What is my Minimum Payment?
MMEX doesn’t appear to ask for the Loan Term.
I do know my monthly payment amount, but in the amortization calculators that is a part of the calculated result, not something I enter.

Any assistance is much appreciated.
pdelamotar
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Re: How to set up a Loan Account

Post by pdelamotar »

There are many different ways to approach that, and what I did in my case is the following, and it is what is closest to reality.

I created a loan account that I would call a car.

I create this at 0 opening dollars and transfer to the cash account

There it appears as an expense in the loan account, and also an income in my cash account, and then monthly the entries that you have to your cash account that you use to pay the loan, you would only have to make a transfer to your account of the loan until it reaches 0, while you could put the interest as an expense (otherwise the loan account would be left with a positive balance that you do not have)
DELAMOTA
Dicksonap
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Re: How to set up a Loan Account

Post by Dicksonap »

I guess I had assumed that when I set up a loan account, MMEX would create an amortization table based on the input I gave it. Then when I entered a monthly payment, MMEX would determine how much was principal and how much was interest, and deduct the principal amount from the current amount of the loan, showing me the amount still owing. Wrong assumption apparently. I do have access to the information, but have to log in to the bank each month to get it. I had hoped to keep everything together in MMEX.