Adding your Loan to Loan Manager
Now that you have completed the necessary action steps in QuickBooks outlined in How to Use QuickBooks Loan Manager part one, you are ready to set up your loan in your QuickBooks Loan Manager.
- Open Loan Manager in QuickBooks by going to the Banking menu and selecting Loan Manager. This will open the Loan manager window.
- Click on Add a Loan to start your loan setup process.
- The initial screen will be titled Enter account info for this loan.
- A drop down box will appear when you click on Account Name. Choose the loan account name you previously setup. The account balance will automatically populate. Be sure that it equals your actual amount due on the loan after prior payments you have made.
- Select the vendor name from the Lender drop down list (in other words, the vendor that will receive your loan payments)
- Enter the initial loan amount in the field titled “Original Amount”
- Enter the amount of time allotted to repay your loan in years, months or weeks in the Term field
- In the drop-down box under Term, enter the corresponding time period of years, months or weeks
- To continue, click on Next
The following screen will be titled Enter payment info for this loan:
- Choose your Due date of when your next payment is due
- Enter the dollar amount that you will pay every period in the filed titled Payment amount
- If you have previously made payments, edit your next payment number
- From the drop down list, choose a Payment period
- If you plan to include escrow payments choose Yes that is located next to the statement Does this loan have an escrow payment?
- Now insert the Escrow payment amount as well as the corresponding account to which the escrow payment will be made.
- If you want to set an alert to remind you each month when the payment is due, you can select the Alert me 10 days before a payment is due box.
- Now select Next to move to the next screen.
The following screen is titled Enter interest info for the loan:
- Insert the loan’s interest rate and enter the number only with no quotes or percentage symbols. (Enter 5 instead of 5% or “.05” for a 5 % interest rate)
- Look in your loan papers from the lending institution then insert your Compounding period of Exact days or Monthly depending on what you loan docs say.
- From the drop-down under Payment Account, choose the bank account that you will be using to make payments
- From the drop down under Interest Expense, choose the corresponding expense account you set up.
- From Fees>Charges Expense Account, choose the corresponding account
- Click on Finish.
If you need to change information that was entered when you first set the loan up, simply click on Edit loan details to change information. Click on the Payment Schedule to review your amortization schedule.
To make a payment on the loan, click on Set up payment:
- From Set up payment, from the drop down located near the top of the screen, choose the appropriate option.
- Click on What is the difference between a regular and extra pymt? if you want more info on these options
- If needed, edit the Principal, Interest and Fees as well as Charges
- From the drop down located at the bottom, choose your Payment method
- Now click on OK and you can view the check or bill for payment of the loan
- Make edits if necessary and click Save and close
To analyze various loan scenarios you can use the What if tool.
- Click on What If Scenarios from the loan manager screen. The button is located on the bottom.
- Select How much will I pay with a new loan or select Evaluate two new loans from the drop down on Choose a Scenario
- Now enter criteria for the loan and click on Calculate to view your results
- If you want to print the results, click on Print
- Now click on OK to close the window once you are finished.
If you still have additional questions or are having any problems with the QuickBooks Loan Manager or any other aspect of QuickBooks, click the Find a Trainer link above for information on our QuickBooks expert in your area.