There's no doubt that you're going to set up debt that you have, such as mortgage payments, car payments, etc., as bills in Quicken. These are things you pay monthly, so of course you'll set it up. However, you may also want to track your debt, especially if you want to keep track of how much you're paying in interest or how much you owe after each payment you make.

Setting Up a Liability Account

In Quicken, if you want to track your debt, you must start by setting up a liability account. You will have to set up a liability account for every debt that you're going to track. This means if you want to track your mortgage, car loan, and student loan, you'll need to set up a liability account for each one. A liability account is an accounting statement that tracks how much you owe a particular creditor, such as the bank that holds your mortgage.

Let's learn how to set up a liability account for an amortized loan, or a loan on which you make regular and equal payments. With an amortized loan, each payment reduces some of the amount owed on the principal (or actual amount borrowed).

To enter a loan, go to Tools>Add Account. This is the same step we took to add bank and credit card accounts, so it should look familiar to you.

In the Property & Debt section, click Loan.

Enter in the name of the loan provider, then click next.

You'll be asked to sign into your loan account online. Quicken will then download your account information.

If you don't want to sign in online or don't have login information to do so, click Manual Loan Account at the bottom of the dialogue box (pictured above).

You'll then see the following dialogue box. This will be one of several dialogue boxes that will ask you to fill in information regarding your loan. Although it will take a few minutes to get the loan set up, it's as easy as can be. It'll help if you have your loan balance, interest rate, and original amount of the loan in front of you - as well as the length of the loan.

Look at the dialogue box below, then we'll go over the information it requires.

In the Loan Details dialogue box (pictured above), enter a name for the loan. This is the name you want to give it in Quicken, and this is the name that will help you identify it in the Account Bar.

Next, choose the loan type:

We are going to choose an auto loan.

If you don't have your latest loan statement handy, you may want to locate that before you fill in the rest of the information in order to keep your Quicken records up-to-date and accurate.

You'll need to enter:

•          The opening date - or the date the loan started.
•          The original balance of the loan.
•          The current interest rate for the loan.
•          The original length of the loan entered in years. Be sure you enter in years and not months. This can be especially tricky if you have a 36 month car loan, etc.
•          The compounding period of the loan. This simply means how often the bank calculates the interest on the loan. It's usually the payment period.
•          The payment schedule.
•          The current balance for the loan. 
•          The amount of the monthly payment for the loan.

  Quicken will calculate your monthly payment for you and fill in the box. However, you'll want to make sure it's correct and re-enter it if it's not.

  When you're finished, click the Next button.

  

  In the next window, you'll be asked to enter the date when your next payment is due.

  Enter in any extra fees or extra principal that you want to pay each month.

  Click Next.

  

  Quicken will then ask you if you want to set up a reminder for this loan payment and enter it into the register. Check the box (pictured above) if you want a reminder. Also specify how many days before the due date you'd like to see the reminder.

  Click Next.

  In the Loan Payment Reminder box, you can specify how the loan payment will appear in your register, as well as select the account that you'll use to make the payment. You can also split the transaction into multiple categories.

  Click Done when you're finished.

  

  Click Done again.

  Editing Loan Information or Deleting a Loan

  You can easily edit your loan information once you have it set up or if your terms change. Right click on the loan in the Account Bar, as shown below.

  

  Select Edit/Delete Account from the context menu.

  

  You can then edit the loan information. You can also add a contact name at the bank that holds your loan, create links to the banks page or your activity page, and add comments about the account.

  You can also delete the loan by clicking the Delete Account button.

  Click OK when you're finished.

  Making a Payment

  Once you set up a loan in Quicken, you'll record a payment on this debt in a different manner. If you hadn't entered the loan in Quicken, you would have probably just set it up as a bill with a reminder. However, if you entered a loan, then you'll want to use the liability account for the loan to make the payment.

  Let's show you what we mean.

  To record a payment for a loan, go to the loan account by going to the Account Bar and clicking on the loan.

  Click on Payment Details, as shown below.

  

  Next, click on the gar icon and choose Enter Loan Payment from the menu.

  

  You will then see the Enter Expense Transaction dialogue box.

  Interested in learning more? Why not take an online Quicken 2019 course?

  

  Make sure the loan payment details are correct, then click the Enter Transaction button.

  About Mortgage Escrow Accounts

  Unfortunately, your mortgage payment is comprised of several different charges that you pay each month. Of course, you're paying on the principal and interest each month, but you're also paying property taxes, homeowner's insurance, and etc. This means that your mortgage payment may be $600, but only $400 of that goes to the principal and interest. The rest goes to escrow accounts. You don't want to record that money ($200 per month using our example) as coming off of what you owe on the loan. It'll make your records inaccurate.

  To manage this correctly in Quicken, you can set up an asset account for each escrow account for which your mortgage company collects money.

  An asset account is set up just like a checking account. Go to Tools>Add Account. In the Property & Debt section, choose Other Asset.

  

  Enter a name for the asset account.

  

  Click Next.

  

  Enter a starting date to track the asset, then enter the amount currently in the escrow account. The starting balance of your asset account should be equal to the current escrow balance. Remember, you'll want a different asset account for each escrow account.

  Click Next.

  

  Link the asset account to the loan in Quicken. You cannot create an asset account like this if you do not have a liability account set up.

  Click Next.

  

  Your asset account is created for you.

  Watch your mortgage statements so you know when payments are made by your mortgage company to your insurance company or county assessor. When a payment is made, you'll need to decrease the amount in your escrow account by the same amount that was paid by the mortgage company.

  Instead of a payment like you would have in a checking account, you have a decrease in your asset account. Instead of a deposit like you would have in your checking, you have an increase in your asset account. If you look at the snapshot below, you can see the Increase and Decrease columns in our asset account register.

  

  Using the Calendar

  You can use the Quicken calendar to see daily or weekly views of your financial status. You can see daily available cash balances and a snapshot of your scheduled bills and deposits. You can also pay bills from your calendar if you use Quicken Bill Pay.

  To access the calendar, go to Tools>Calendar.

  

  If you want to view transactions from specified accounts on the calendar, click Options on the upper right hand side of the window, then choose Select Calendar Accounts.

  

  Choose the accounts that you want to see on the account balances graph. The accounts you select will have a green check mark next to them.

  

  Click OK.

  If you want to view both recorded and scheduled transactions, go to Options again and select "Show Recorded Transactions in Calendar" and "Show Scheduled Bills and Deposits in Calendar".

  You can also add transactions using the calendar. Simply double click on the date for which you want to enter a transaction.

  

  Click Add.

  Choose if you want to add an expense, income, or a reminder.

  

  We've chosen to add an expense.

  You'll now see this window:

  

  In the dialogue box, you'll be asked to enter:

•          The payee - or who you are paying 
•          The category for the expense 
•          A tag if you want to use one 
•          A memo. Remember, this is optional. 
•          The account you want to use 
•          The method of payment (check, ATM, etc.) 
•          The amount of the transaction
•          The date of the transaction

  When you're finished, click the Enter Transaction button.

  Did you know that you can also edit a transaction using the calendar? Simply double click on the date that has the transaction you want to edit.

  

  Click Edit in the box above.

  This dialogue box will appear:

  

  Make the necessary changes and click OK. Your calendar will be automatically updated.

• Setting Up Charts, Graphs, and Reports

  Take a moment to glance over the section titles in this lesson. The two titled "Creating Reports" and "Creating Charts and Graphs" might stand out. They may even make you a little nervous. They sound labor-intensive, don't they? If that is what you're imagining, you can relax, because nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the name is a bit of a misnomer; you don't actually have to create reports, charts, or graphs in Quicken. The software does it all automatically. All you have to do is click a button and select your desired parameters. A better way to say it would be "viewing reports, charts, and graphs."

  So let's see how to do that.

  Creating Reports

  The Reports button is available in the action bar of every tab except Bills. Below is an example of what it looks like.

  

  Let's click on the Reports button for spending:

  

  Quicken shows you all reports that you can run that have to do with your spending. You can also click on All Reports:

  

  This shows you all the Quicken reports available.

  Let's run a Banking report (from the menu above). We'll choose Banking Summary.

  

  If you want to export data from a report to an Excel, PDF, or copy it to the clipboard, click the Export button in the report window.

  

  Click Customize (to the right of Export) to customize the layout of the report.

  

  You can also print or save your report from the report window.

  Take time to look at the different reports you can run, and the information each contains.

  Getting Register Reports

  There are a number of reports that you can create from the register of any banking account. A standard report shows all the transactions that have the same payee or category.

  To create a register report:

  Open the account register that you want to use.

  Right click and select Launch Mini-Report.

  

  This will show the history for the payee you've selected. In the snapshot above, a three year history is shown. Click on the downward arrow to change the length:

  

  Click Show Report to see the register report.

  

  More on Customizing Reports

  To learn how to modify reports, click the Reports button, then select Banking>Cash Flow.

  

  Click Customize.

  

  We're now going to look at the options available to us on each tab.

  Display. On this tab we can select a title for our report. Since we selected Cash Flow, Quicken has automatically inserted that into the Title box. To change this, simply click in the box and type a new name. We can also change what is displayed in the Rows or Columns. However we can only select a value from one of the dropdown menus, and we cannot enter an arbitrary one. Choose an organization method. There are three options: Income Expense, Cash Flow Basis, and Category Group.

  Accounts. Use this tab to select the account groups you'd like Quicken to use to build the report. You can even choose to display hidden accounts.

  Categories. Use this tab to select the categories you'd like to use in your report.

  Payees. This tab allows you to select or exclude certain payees from your report.

  Categories. Use this tab to select or exclude categories.

  Advanced. Use this tab to further fine-tune your report. You can specify an amount, include unrealized gains, use tax-related transactions, and transaction types. You can also choose to include or exclude all transfers, and subcategories. Use the selections in the Status box to include items that have not cleared, newly cleared, or have been reconciled.

  Click the OK button when you're finished.

  When you customize or change a report, the different instances are accessible by clicking the Back button, the Forward button or the History button. If there is only one instance of a report, these buttons are faded and unusable.

  Creating Graphs

  Charts and graphs are great tools for seeing at a glance who's getting the biggest piece of your pie. In Quicken, creating them is just as easy as creating reports. In fact, the process for doing both is almost identical.

  To create charts and graphs, click on the Reports button, go to all Reports, then the Reports & Graphs Center.

  

  The Reports & Graphs Center is pictured below.

  

  Some selections will create pie graphs, while others will create line charts. We'll choose Spending by Category (as shown in the left column above).

  

  As you can see, when we clicked on Spending By Category, three buttons appeared: Customize, Show Report, and Show Graph. To create a graph, click Show Graph.

  

  If you want to see the report, you can click Show Report at the bottom right of the screen (as pictured above).