How to best track the balance on a loan to a family member? (edited)

Question

My granddaughter pays back a loan via direct deposit into my checking account.  How can I keep track of her remaining balance?

EL1234 · Answer

That's what I would do. If the account that the payments are sent to is a linked account, then every time a payment transaction is downloaded, just categorize it as a transfer to the manual account. It'll create a matching transaction in the manual account to reduce the amount owed to zero. NOTE: I believe you need to use a POSITIVE number as your starting balance since money owed to you is an asset. When the positive transaction (payment) comes through to your checking account and you categorize it, the matching transaction it will create will be a negative number, subtracting from the amount that is owed to you.

Once you set this up you can even create a recurring transaction for the repayments (assuming they are on a predictable schedule) so you can see the projected balance going down. (I don't remember if Other Asset lets you see projections, but if not you could choose Other Banking for the category).

Coach Aldair · Answer

Hi @Terry Glaser,

Since the loan repayments are being deposited directly into your checking account, you can use a manual account in Quicken Simplifi to keep track of the remaining balance.

To set this up:

* Go to Settings > Accounts.
* Select Add Account.
* Choose Add a Manual Account.
* Select Other Asset as the account type.
* Give the account a name such as Granddaughter Loan.
* Enter the current amount owed as the starting balance. Example is -$20,000.00
* Once the account is created, record each repayment as a transaction in the manual account, reducing the balance by the amount your granddaughter pays back.
* The remaining balance in this manual account will then represent the amount still owed.

You can see in this screenshot that, after i created a deposit, the remaining balance is now -$18,000.00 and the opening balance was -$20,000.00

There's many ways to track this type of loans, but this way is the most clear one because it allows you to have an specific account for this loan.

I hope this helps! if you need assistance in any of this steps, please let me know!