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.
> 

Two other people have reported the same issue on the Quicken Community 
forum under the subject "Why did Quicken stop distributing my mortgage 
payments between principal and interest?" One said he reported it to 
Quicken and the other said he was going to.