Paying down a manual (non-connected) loan

the_scottster

I have a loan that I have entered the balance for . I'd like to enter a payment, but when I enter an amount, the balance goes up, and I can't seem to change the amount to negative (which presumably would cause the balance to go down). What do I do?

ajbopp

Try entering "+1000", being sure to add the sign. The transaction may be backwards from what you are expecting. That is, you may think you're recording a transfer from checking to the loan, but it could be that you accidentally set it up as a transfer from the loan to checking.

RobWilk

Ideally, you'd start with a negative balance on the loan account, and correctly, as you paid it, the balance would go up (from negative towards zero).

When you make payments, are you doing them as linked transfers? That's where you set the category as a transfer category to the account name. If you do that, it should have a negative balance effect on the account you paid from and a positive balance effect on the account receiving the money.

When in doubt, put a "-" in front of negative payment amounts and a "+" in front of payment amounts for credits.

the_scottster

It does have a negative balance but when I enter a transaction for 1,000, it increases the negative balance by $1,000. And I cannot change $1,000 to -$1,000 and have the change stick; it just reverts.

the_scottster

Thank you @ajbopp - that was the solution.