Hello. I am trying to track a personal loan and have a few questions.
If I add the manual account through the tiller homepage it won’t show up in the debt tracker add on sheet. If I add this manual account via the tiller money feeds in my googlesheet, the debt/savings tracker sees it. Not sure why that happens.
I have added a debt to my categories sheet for the savings budget and included the monthly payments for this debt as positive numbers in the categor sheet, which I think it correct.
With this personal loan, of course it is a liability, but I am curious how I should track the funding in the category sheet. The money was transfered into my account so I have a transaction for this transfer from an external account into my account. I have categorized this transaction as the name of the manual account I created per the debt tracker instructions. My assumption is that I would show this funding as a ( - ) number in the category sheet and then show my payments as positive numbers in the months following until I have paid off this loan. Is this correct?
When I created the manual account there is a balance entry. Should I use the principal as the balance or the principla + interest?
In the debt tracker I put in the debt account from the drop down, I add the interest rate, payoff date and then it populates, balance, periods, budgeted, req’d budget remaining, and the balance. I am not clear where it finds those values, but I assume the balance is fed from the manual account, the periods is based on the payoff date, the budgeted is taken from the savings budget, but not sure about the required budget, or the remaining balance. Would like help understanding that
Can you please confirm you’ve linked your manual account to your sheet and that it’s a liability type account? Otherwise it won’t show up on the Debt Payoff Planner. Unless I’ve misunderstood can you link here the reference for the debt/savings tracker you refer to?
I got a bit lost on your 3rd point. Starting with categorizing transactions relating to this loan, payment towards the loan should be Transfer type. I wasn’t clear though the transfer from the external account then goes into a holding account or straight to the loan account? Is the external account linked to your sheet? i.e. are you otherwise tracking that account with Tiller as well? For reference here is our guide on transfers.
The Categories sheet is for entering the budget amounts, limits per category per given month and these values would be positive. Example if you’re not looking to pay more than $1000 towards your loan, a category you define e.g. Loan payments which is of Transfer type will have 1000 set across the cells. Does that make sense?
Regarding what to have as the balance I’d presume principal + interest since all will need to be taken care of unless the breakdown for your particular loan is different?
“Recommended payment” is based on the payoff method you choose as described here. I think if you have particular questions about the method you’ve selected and the suggested payments you see we’d need more information .
Thanks for your response. Maybe to start off, I should link to the tiller solution I am using. Its the savings and debt tracking sheet. Maybe, I shouldn’t use it.
I don’t need a debt pay-off planner. I have a plan. I just want a place to track the balance, the impact it has on budget, and my cashflow. The way I have thought about this is that I get the loan, some amount of money comes into my cashflow, that money gets used in some way, I have a pay off schedule over some number of months, and a final pay-off balance. So my cashlow shows in inflow in month 1 and outflow in future months.
Can you please confirm you’ve linked your manual account to your sheet and that it’s a liability type account? Otherwise it won’t show up on the Debt Payoff Planner. Unless I’ve misunderstood can you link here the reference for the debt/savings tracker you refer to?
I have linked this as a manual accout and can see it in the debt tracker. I was able to add the account through the foundations sheet. When I tried to add it via the tiller homepage it didn’t work. So I think I am good there.
I got a bit lost on your 3rd point. Starting with categorizing transactions relating to this loan, payment towards the loan should be Transfer type.
Sorry for the confusion. I did see that I had it as an expense and now have changed it to a transfer account.
I wasn’t clear though the transfer from the external account then goes into a holding account or straight to the loan account?
This was a personal loan via a family member, so they just transferred the loaned ammount directly into my personal account, so I don’t have a “loan account”
Is the external account linked to your sheet? i.e. are you otherwise tracking that account with Tiller as well? For reference here is our guide on transfers.
I think this is an area I am confused on and maybe I should use a different debt solution than the one I am using. Since this was a personal loan funded from a family members personal account I don’t have access to the external account which is why I made a manual account. So in my transaction history I only show a inflow. Sounds like what I may need to do is create a manual transaction showing a outflow from this manual account. If you have thought on a better way to do this, I would appreciate it.
The Categories sheet is for entering the budget amounts, limits per category per given month and these values would be positive. Example if you’re not looking to pay more than $1000 towards your loan, a category you define e.g. Loan payments which is of Transfer type will have 1000 set across the cells. Does that make sense?
This does make sense and I have a budget expense item for paying down this loan over time. Part of my confusion and again, maybe I should use a different debt tracker tool is how this budget item feeds into the manual account and the debt tracker solution I am trying to use.
Regarding what to have as the balance I’d presume principal + interest since all will need to be taken care of unless the breakdown for your particular loan is different?
This is a different tool than what I am currently using, so maybe I will give that one a try instead of what I am currently using.
