Backdating a loan or mortgage account

When setting up a loan or mortgage account for the first time in Microsoft Money, the earliest date that you can use for entering transaction informationis the start of the current calendar year.

Part of the reason for this, is that the further you go back, the harder it is to get the calculations correct (even though they won't be completely right anyway, as banks and other lenders may work out interest payments slightly differently to those that Microsoft Money does). The amount the loan could be out would be compounded by the amount of time back you go. It is also simpler for Microsoft Money to calculate up to a dozen payments, rather than (potentially) hundreds.

The start date of the loan or mortgage is not usually the date you made your first payment. It will be the date that the money was loaned or borrowed by you, which could be a month or even more before.

People who are coming to the Microsoft Money product for the first time might want to put in historical information about their loans or mortgages. This restriction means you can't do it directly.

To get around to the problem (a backup is definitely advised at this point), close Microsoft Money and then reset the date of your computer to the year you started the loan or mortgage. Start Microsoft Money, and then add in the loan or mortgage details to your Money file using the start date of the loan - you will find that it can now be done. Then exit Money and reset the date again. You now have a file with a loan or mortgage starting on the date you require.

If selected the option in the wizard in Microsoft Money to add the mortgage payment as a scheduled bill in the bills and deposits place, you'll see a number of entries listed which now need entering. It is beneficial to enter these to generate all of your historical payments. This is because the amortization on the loan would be calculated more accurately.

If you do this, you might need to remove any existing payments from your account register so that the same transactions aren't recorded twice. Another thing to note, is that if you remove these duplicate entries, make sure you change the 'cleared' status of the new transactions manually to be the same as the ones you delete, or else you'll have problems next time you balance.

The mechanism described above is not recommended on trial versions of Microsoft Money. Because these are time restricted, changing system dates may have an adverse effect on the use of the program, and you may find that you are locked out of the product.