Fixed escrow amount

[Tommy Trussell]

On Tue, May 5, 2009 at 1:29 PM, Abdon Gonzalez <abdon.gonzalez at gmail.com> wrote:
> I printed the schedule and don't mind doing the additional payments by
> hand. My only problem right now is how to add the escrow to my monthly
> payment.
>
> Right now it is calculating principal and interest just fine. I need
> to add the $337.74 from checking, that goes into the escrow account.
> Whenever I get a statement with a Payout from escrow, I will fill the
> transaction by hand. Whenever my bank recalculates the monthly escrow
> payment, I will just need to change the $337.74 to the new value.
>
> I'm not that familiar with GNUCash. Please feel free to dumb down your
> answers :}
>
> - AG

Looking back at your screen shot
http://www.sillypages.com/tempo/screenshot.png if you notice you have
two separate transactions. The top one seems to be identified as the
Escrow payment, but it has some sort of a calculated amount going
from Assets:Current Assets:Checking
-- to -- Assets:Fixed Assets:Sunnyside av...

and there's another transaction
from Assets:Fixed Assets:Sunnyside av...
-- to -- Liabilities:Loans:Sunnyside avenu...
-- to -- Expenses:Interest:Sunnyside Mort...

I actually don't understand the reason for the Assets:Fixed Assets
account, but maybe that's just me. I presume the Druid created this
account, and it probably has a purpose.

I am not in front of my GnuCash system right now, but I believe I had
the split looking something like this:

from Assets:Current Assets:Checking  [total payment]
-- to -- Liabilities:Loans:Mortgage Principal [principal portion of total]
-- to -- Expenses:Interest:Mortgage Interest [interest portion of total]
-- to -- Assets:Current Assets:Mortgage Escrow [escrow portion of total]
(and as I said I had an additional line for an additional monthly
principal payment)

The Principal and Interest can be calculated amounts, and the Escrow
will be a fixed amount. If you are making any additional principal
payments, the calculated amounts will not work, but that's OK because
you can adjust them later.

I hope someone who knows the purpose of the fixed assets account will
weigh in. I don't believe I used it, myself, for my mortgage. I don't
believe the value of the home (the fixed asset) CHANGES as you pay
your mortgage. What you OWE, does, so your liability will decrease and
your NET worth may increase, assuming other factors remain the same. I
think. (I Am Not An Accountant, nor did I even study it in school.)