An asset account is a Good Thing if you want to get accurate net worth
reporting. Many of us have asset accounts to offset bug liabilities. (Though
you can, many of us do not have asset accounts to cover all of our other
crap including our automobiles.)

In this case, you want the asset account to reflect the value of the
property you just mortgaged. The register basically will only reflect a)
value at time=0, and b) things you do to the property that you want to
consider "capitalized" rather than expensed. To do the former, you set the
initial account balance. Typically, if you just bought the place, set it to
what you paid. That's as good a determinant of value as there is. To do the
latter, instead of expensing, say, the $20,000 for the swimming pool to
Housing:Maintenance, transfer it to the Asset Account. That'll raise the
value of the asset by the amount you transfer in. Periodically, if you have
reason to believe the asset is worth more or less, add an income or expense
item to the asset account to get it to reflect what it's worth. It's as
simple as that.

"Steve Thompson" <stthomp[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eQnycLP$EHA.1400[at]TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
- quote -

Hello all,

Once again I'm confused. Thanks for everyone's help in the past by the way.

First, just let me say that I don't really know what I'm doing but based on
what I've read so far, it seems that a mortgage account would make a good
asset account. So...

Here's the deal, I have successfully setup an account for my mortgage
company and when I look at the amortization report it's pretty damn close;
off by like 2 cents. I'd say that's close enough. Now when I enter a payment
into my checking account to the mortgage company account all of my splits
are arranges the way they should be and the Payment, Principal and balance
are right on track in the mortgage account. Then what I tried to do (And
here is where I'm having trouble) is setup an Asset account that is
associated with the mortgage account so that I can show my assets.

After I set up an asset account which was linked to my ortgage account I
just get a blank register. How do I get the proper entries into my Asset
account and how will I know if they're right? By the way, I did read the
online help (Which got me no where) and I did browse the FAQ.

Am I just spinning my wheels here or am I going too far? If setting up an
asset account is a good thing, what do I have to do next based on what I've
already told you?

Thanks again,

Steve