I am using M06 Deluxe and it is set up as a "loan". I orginally thought I had
set it up the way you describe - as a transfer from my savings with a portion
going to interest. But as I go back and look, they are all 'payments'
categorized as 'withdrawls.' So, I wonder if I can go back and change the
transactions to transfers, instead?

I was actually trying to convert them to something that my budget would pick
up, since I somehow didn't have a category listed for any of them. But maybe
that was the probem, giving it a category that is usually used for
'withdrawl', instead of 'transfer.'

Either way, it's still not in my budget, and trying to manually add it
doesn't work. (incedentally, the same thing is happening for my school loan,
but I think that's another issue i need to investigate).

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see if changing the transactions to
transfers allows me to include them in the budget. Of course, I'll make a
back up first!

"Dick Watson" wrote:

- quote -

Some questions inline below. Sorry I didn't reply to the other post, but I
don't see it on my newsreader.

"c-squared" <csquared[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8C27224D-F02F-4DB4-965A-FB84B9193218[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

What happens when you select Loan Payment?

- quote -

Are we talking Advanced Registers here? When you say they are 'payments'
categorized as 'withdrawals' I'm not clear on what you are seeing where. Are
you using transaciton Forms?

- quote -

What Buidget are you using? Advanced Budget? Essential Budget? If Advanced,
is there a Debt section in the Expenses?

- quote -

It appears as though the account is not listed in the transaction dropdown
list when I try to change it from a withdrawl to a 'transfer'. All my other
accounts are listed, but not the car loan. Any ideas?


"c-squared" wrote:

- quote -

As Cal notes, there is no one right answer. You also didn't mention
version/edition or whether you are using Advanced or Essential Registers if
you are using M05/6/7--07 Deluxe or above, not Money Essentials (MEss).

Generally ("Best Practices" but not the only way) these loans are setup as
Loan Accounts and payments are made with the special category "Loan
Payment". Loan Payment is a special split that combines a Transfer to the
Loan Account--a liability account--and some interest expense.

Guessing and speculation begins here:

From the message you say you are getting, I conclude that you were trying to
covert them to something like "Loan" (an expense category) not the "special"
"Loan Payment" which would normally have prompted you about what the target
loan account is.

Based on your diagnostic information, I'm assuming you have a generic
Liability Account, not a Loan Account. In this case, your best bet, assuming
the account making the payments is also in your Money file, is to convert
the payment withdrawn from the cash account and the payment deposited into
the liability account into one Transfer transaction.

You may ask "Why a transfer? Isn't it an expense that I should budget?"
Well, the short and pedantic answer is either that you already had the
expense the day you bought the car or when the value of the car that your
money is now invested in declines. The Loan--a liability--directly offsets
this, so you weren't out anything. From this point of view, the real
question is not whether you can "afford" (budget) the expense but is really
whether you can free up enough cash to make the transfers and afford the
expense of servicing the debt--i.e., paying the interest on the money you
borrowed to convert into a car.

"c-squared" <csquared[at]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:72356887-AD69-491E-A5C3-2BEB31AFF363[at]microsoft.com...
- quote -

In microsoft.public.money, c-squared wrote:

- quote -

There is more than one right way. An easy way would be to change the
category of the payments to a new EXPENSE category called "Car
Payment" or some such.

FindAndReplace could be useful to change the category of existing
transactions.

Make an extra copy/backup of your file in case you want to undo
something.

What category should car loan payments go under? I have 2 years worth of
payments on my carloan, which will be paid off in a few months, but somehow,
there is no category listed with any of the payments. This is throwing my
budget off.

When I try to change the category to "Loan payment", it asks me if I want to
"save this deposit that's categorized as an expense"? I realize I am
'depositing' a payment to my loan account, but as it is now, it's being
categorized as 'unassigned income.'

How can I fix this mess I've created?

Thanks in advance.