Allowing Liability accounts to start with negative number to track your progress (edited)

JoshZ

Hi,

I would like to track a personal loan which is not connected to a financial institution using quicken. However the system doesn't allow me to enter a negative opening balance (-$500.00) and then subtract from that balance as I make repayments. Instead it makes the transactions a positive number which incorrectly adds to the balance rather than subtracting. Is there a work around for this issue coming?

Thank you

Josh

Coach Natalie

@JoshZ, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

I’ve moved this out of Feature Requests, as liability accounts already use a negative opening balance in Quicken Simplifi. I tested this in my own Quicken Simplifi account and confirmed that loan accounts are created with a negative starting balance.

Based on your screenshot, your loan account balance is also negative. The transactions shown in the screenshot appear to be negative amounts as well, which is why they are increasing the loan balance rather than reducing it.

Payments applied to the loan account should be entered as positive amounts. Our Help Center article explains how to enter a deposit/income transaction in Quicken Simplifi. These transactions will display in green with a "+" sign: How to Create an Income/Deposit Transaction | Quicken Simplifi Help Center

Since you're using the category "Loan Payment" to track these transactions as expenses, you'll want to record those expense transactions in the account that is making the payment. The payment account should show the "Loan Payment" transactions as expenses, while the loan account should receive either transfer transactions or balance adjustments entered as positive amounts to reduce the outstanding balance.

If you use the "Loan Payment" category for positive transactions in the loan account, those transactions will offset the expense transactions in the payment account, which is likely not the result you're looking for.

Personally, I would use positive balance adjustments in the loan account, but other Community members may have alternative methods that work well for their tracking preferences.

I hope this helps!