Re: Mortgage amortization no longer working properly

On 01/14/2023 1:51 PM, John Pollard wrote:
> On Friday, January 13, 2023 at 1:22:50 PM UTC-6, Kobac wrote:
> 
>> Quicken has been properly amortizing our mortgage payments since 2012.
>> After I entered this month's payment from the Bill and Income Reminders
>> window as I always do, I switched to the mortgage account register to
>> verify the current mortgage balance. I saw that, not only had the
>> balance not changed since last month, there was no payment transaction
>> for this month shown in the mortgage account register. I switched back
>> to our checking account register and opened the split transaction window
>> for the payment transaction I had just entered. The split transaction
>> window listed the mortgage principal and the interest expense
>> categories, but the entire payment was allocated to a blank line with no
>> assigned category. All the loan details in the mortgage account look OK;
>> the monthly payment is shown properly allocated between principal and
>> interest, but it doesn't get entered that way. The next scheduled
>> transaction shows the same thing—a split transaction showing the
>> mortgage principal and interest expense categories, but the entire
>> payment is being allocated to a blank line with no assigned category.
>>
>> It looks to me that my problem is very likely related to one of the
>> Quicken updates done between December 13 and January 12 since I had no
>> issue when I entered my December 12 mortgage payment. I'm currently
>> running version R46.12, build 27.1.46.12 under 64-bit Windows 10 Pro.
>> I've been on the Quicken subscription model for the past 4 years and
>> install any Quicken updates whenever they are offered to me.
>>
>> I suspect an issue with a Quicken update because I restored various
>> (about 6 or 7) Quicken backups earlier today stretching all the way back
>> to January 2022 (last year). In every one of those restored files, the
>> bill reminder in the Bill and Income Reminders list did NOT allocate any
>> amounts to either mortgage principal or interest expense but instead
>> entered the entire payment amount to a blank line in the split
>> transaction with NO category. All prior mortgage payments going back
>> over 10 years were allocated properly by Quicken.
> 
> My regular Quicken version is currently Home, Business & Rental Property R43.26 (I typically do not install new releases until they have been out for a while and I have had the opportunity to see what others have to say about them); I do not see your problem in R43.26.
> 
> I had been testing on another computer with R46.9; and while I was not specifically checking mortgage loan payments, I don't recall seeing the problem there either.
> 
> After reading your post here, I installed R46.12 on my test machine and manually Entered the Reminder for the next payment for a test loan (I did not look at the Reminder split before I started the Enter routine, nor during the Enter routine. After manually entering that loan payment transaction, I saw the same problem you report - the loan payment split transaction is screwed up exactly as you note.
> 
> Then I turned my attention to a different test loan.
> 
> This time I first checked the Reminder for the loan payment (by selecting the Reminder and clicking "Edit" in the Bill & Income Reminders menu row, then opening its Split): the split for that loan reminder was correct. I cancelled out of the Edit.
> 
> Next, while the same loan payment Reminder was selected, I clicked its Edit button, and opened the split in the resulting dialog. At that point, the split had become hosed, just as did the previous test loan payment transaction I entered.
> 
> 
> I tried one more test: I changed the loan payment Reminder from "Remind me" to "Auto Enter" (enough days in advance so the Auto Enter qualify for auto-enter. Then I exited and restarted Quicken. The Auto-Enter loan payment transaction split was correct.
> [I also have my own mortgage loan in that test file and my mortgage loan payment is always an Auto-Enter reminder: I changed it so the next payment would be auto-entered, exited/restarted Quicken, and my next loan payment had been entered with the correct principal/split]
> 
> So it appears that something goes wrong during the manual Enter process for a loan payment Reminder which screws up the split.
> 
> [I did a quick test of a non-loan split transaction (with one split line a transfer, the other split line an expense). When I manually entered that split Reminder, I did not see the problem.]
> 
> 
> I don't claim to be able to guarantee anything, but I look at it like this.
> 
> First of all, this seems clearly to be a bug, and I think you should report it to Quicken using Help > Report a Problem. I would plan to send a sanitized copy of your Quicken QDF file (Quicken will do the sanitizing if you request it). There is a size limit on the file you can send directly from Quicken: if your sanitized file is too large, you can put a copy of it someplace like One Drive or Google Drive and include that information in the Report a Problem problem description.
> 
> 
> Since the Reminder transaction itself does not appear to be corrupted, you can take one of two approaches until Quicken fixes the problem:
> 1.) Change the loan payment Reminder to Auto-Enter
> 2.) Continue manually Entering the loan payment Reminder, but correct the split during the Enter process.
> 
> Two other options I would not choose personally:
> 1.) Manually enter the loan payment transaction without altering the split; then alter the split in the loan payment account. To me, it's easier to modify during the Enter process. [But it's good to know that the loan payment transaction CAN be corrected once it has been entered.]
> 2.) Uninstall Quicken, then reinstall Quicken making sure Quicken can not access the internet during the install. Once the install is complete, manually update to a Release that does not have the problem (I suspect that R46.9 will work, if not then then probably R45.13). I think reinstalling is more work than this particular problem warrants.
> 

I had already planned to take option #1, modifying the split during the 
ENTER transaction, until a more permanent solution is found. It seems to 
be the simplest solution.

I will report the issue to Quicken.

Thanks, John!