Test report: Scheduled Transactions

[Tim Wunder]

Derek Atkins wrote:

> Josh Sled <jsled@asynchronous.org> writes:
> 
> 
>>>Other thoughts, is there a way to configure a fixed loan, such as a
>>>mortgage or auto loan, so that scheduled transactions are created
>>>for the loan? This would be especially neat for those folks who
>>>have automated withdrawals done for mortgaes.
>>>
>>Indeed; this can probably be done, though my shallow initial thought
>>about it is that it'd be benefited by some "advanced" SX functionality I
>>wasn't planning on implementing real soon...  I'll think some more about
>>this in the near future.
>>
> 
> I think this would best be done by having a "Loan" liability account
> that can actually measure current state.  The way I'd envision it is
> that you would have a Loan account that is initialized by a principal
> balance, interest rate, and term.  The "account" can compute the
> monthly payment due (it's a simple calculation).  Next, the SX would
> move the automatic payments from your "checking" to the Loan account.
> Obviously the Loan account would need to know whether overpayments are
> applied to Interest or Principal.  Then there is the question of
> escrow payments... :)
> 


Is there currently a loan liability account? How does gnucash, in 
general, handle loans? I know that Quicken has a decent mechanism for 
handling Mortgage type loans, fixed interest, fixed term. It can create 
a scheduled transaction for paying the loan. I use it all the time.

It also has credit card accounts, that I don't use for credit cards, but 
DO use for my Equity Line of Credit. I don't have it automatically 
create scheduled transactions, though (although I think it can) since 
the payment varies so much based on min payment requirements and cash 
flow. But I think Scheduled Transactions could work there, too, based on 
current balance, minimum payment and term rules on the loan/credit card. 
Most equity lines have fixed rules on how interest payments are 
calculated, even if they have variable rates (as do credit cards, for 
that matter).


> Thinking about this, I'm not sure whether this should be done by one
> combined "magic" account or a master loan account with three
> sub-accounts (principal, interest, escrow).  Any comments on how this
> should work?  I think the idea situation would be a master account
> with three "hidden" subaccounts, but I don't think it's possible to
> create a hidden account.  My reasoning is that I'd like to see, for
> example, how much interested I paid over a year, or what my current
> principal balance is.
> 


Just a thought: Do we care about the portion of Escrow that's disbursed 
to taxes and insurance? Probably not... that really should be handled by 
transactions entered into the Escrow account separately from the 
Mortgage payment. I guess you can set up a scheduled transaction in the 
Escrow account that'll be for taxes, when they're due, and Insurance, 
when that's due...
Scheduled Transactions can be entered for any account, correct?


> I'd offer to work on this functionality, but I don't have a working
> gnucash development environment.  Hopefully that will be fixed in the
> next couple of months.  If nobody else does it by the time I've got a
> working development platform, I'd be happy to do this myself.
> Otherwise I can at least provide verbal/written support if not code :)
> 
> -derek
> 
> 


Hey, I'd offer to code, too. 'ceptin' I ain't too brite...


Tim