To set up your mortgage account, Quicken needs information about the terms of the loan and the lender. Then Quicken creates the loan payment schedule and liability account. As you make loan payments, Quicken keeps track of the balance of the loan's principal, and of how much you have paid in interest.
On the Mac, Quicken steps you through creating a loan with an assistant. Begin by choosing Lists > Loans. The Loans window appears.
Click the New button. The Loan Interview dialog appears.
Select the radio buttons in the Loan Interview dialog that are appropriate for the loan you're creating, then click Continue. A second Loan Interview dialog appears, asking if you want to set up the loan beginning with the first payment or with the next payment due. I suggest that you start with the first payment. You'll need to know your payment amount, the original amount of the loan, the date that you made the first payment, the total number of payments, and the annual interest rate. Click First, and then click Continue.
| 1. | In the resulting Set Up Loan dialog, enter the name of your lender.
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| 2. | Enter the payment amounts. Enter the amount of your regular payment in the Principal + interest field. If you have one or more other amounts in your monthly paymentfor example, if you make monthly contributions to an escrow account for property taxesenter it in the PMI, property tax, etc. field.  |
| 3. | Enter the date of your first payment.
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| 4. | Choose the frequency of the payment from the pop-up menu. Monthly is the default choice; change it if necessary.
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| 5. | Enter the Total # of payments . For example, for a 30-year mortgage, you'll have 360 payments. Quicken will calculate the number of payments that you have made since the first payment.
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| 6. | Enter the Annual interest rate , the interest expense category, and enter a name for the principal liability account that you'll use to track this loan. Quicken pops up a dialog confirming that you want to create a new liability account linked to this loan. Click Yes. Enter the beginning loan amount in the Loan amount field.  |
| 7. | If you want to be automatically reminded about your loan payment, check Schedule payment on Calendar in the Payment Options section.
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| 8. | To make sure that everything looks good before you finish creating the loan, click the Preview Payment button to open the Preview Payment dialog. If the loan information looks good, click OK to return to the Set Up Loan dialog.  |
| 9. | Click Create to save the loan information. The loan will appear in the Loans window.
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