[GNC] Stumped on Mortgage Asst - Screenshots

Wed Aug 3 09:35:00 EDT 2022

HI,

On Wed, August 3, 2022 8:37 am, steve.schwandt at fastmail.com wrote:
> Thanks for the background folks. I appreciate the effort and will do the
> manual creation.
>
> However, I'm hardheaded enough that I want get the transaction to work
> within tolerances with a minimum of monthly intervention such as editing
> or reading bank statements. I have to go on record that P&I for July
> 2022 and May 2035 is more than simply fractions of pennies from various
> calculation assumptions. I don't need that sort of precision in tracking
> trends in my personal Net Worth reports.

Personally I just care about the payment and escrow split amounts.  The
actual Principle and Interest amounts are going to be wrong (because I
overpay, which SX doesn't support).  So a couple times a year I go over my
statements to correct those splits.

> Is there a man page of sorts for the various functions, pmt, ipmt,
> ppmt?  I'm sure one of the trailing zeros refers to whether payments are
> due at the beginning or end of the period, but can't imagine what the
> other may be. Meanwhile, I'll continue experimentation on my dummy data.
> Like I said, hardheaded.

Indeed, that is what that last field is for, whether accrual is at the
start or end of the period.  The function matches what you find in, say,
libreoffice, so you can use their documentation to explain the fields
(although the syntax is different due to the separator character
differences).

I do find it odd that only two months are off so much, but it sounds like
it's just the first and last, so start vs end might be the reason.

-derek

>
> Steve
>
> On 8/2/22 10:17, David Carlson wrote:
>> Steve,
>>
>> I am not going to open your zip file, I imagine it is just documenting
>> the
>> fact that the P & I calculations don't exactly match your lenders'
>> statements, which is a known issue, unfixable since they all have their
>> own
>> way of calculating it.  At least that was the case years ago when I last
>> set one up.  Many of us, like Will, just accept the numbers as estimates
>> and correct them when we get the statements.
>>
>> There has been some discussion in the history here about how to massage
>> the
>> equations when we want to 'start in the middle' for an existing loan,
>> for
>> example, but I am not sure how to find those.
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 2, 2022 at 8:47 AM William Prescott<will at theprescotts.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> A slight variation on Steve's suggestion.
>>>
>>> I made the mortgage payments a 'Scheduled Transaction' with some
>>> nominal
>>> values for principal and interest payments. Then, they were created
>>> automatically, and I just edited them to get the amounts correct.
>>>
>>> Will
>>>
>>> On 2022 Aug 2, at 08-02 02:55:33, David T. via gnucash-user <
>>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Steve,
>>>
>>> I expect others will give you ideas on how or what is mistaken on the
>>> mortgage assistant.
>>>
>>> I, however,  am going to suggest a different approach, which is to
>>> forego
>>> using the scheduled transactions/mortgage assistant altogether, and
>>> simply
>>> enter the monthly payments manually.
>>>
>>> The reason I suggest this is due to the fact that (as Michael Novak
>>> often
>>> reminds us on the list) your calculations and the bank's calculations
>>> will
>>> likely not match precisely, due to differences in base assumptions on
>>> the
>>> calculation. Because they won't match precisely, you'll end up editing
>>> the
>>> completed transactions. [For this reason, I truly wonder whether the
>>> mortgage assistant is actually useful or should be included in the
>>> program,
>>> since it seems to cause more troubles than it solved. That's just my
>>> opinion, however.]
>>>
>>> If, instead, you enter the transactions manually, Gnucash will autofill
>>> the transaction with the last entered values, and you can quickly
>>> modify
>>> the amounts to match the bank statement.
>>>
>>> David T.
>>>
>>>
>>> On August 1, 2022 11:59:06 PM GMT+03:00,"steve.schwandt at fastmail.com"
>>> <
>>> steve.schwandt at fastmail.com> wrote:
>>>> All,
>>>>
>>>>      Please help if you can. I think I've documented with the shots
>>> required, but if you want to see something else, sing out. Somewhere I
>>> am
>>> missing a very basic concept. I'm trying to use the assistant to create
>>> a
>>> scheduled transaction. The file names describe each step. The file and
>>> CoA
>>> are dummies until I grasp this concept and move on to putting my 401kk
>>> of
>>> MUFUs into the tool.
>>>> - I've used my current statement, due 1 July to match up a
>>>> amortization
>>> website to show the P&I due on 1 July. Amounts and start dates in the
>>> assistant are configured to match those amounts. Curiously, the website
>>> and
>>> my statement show a different remaining balance, but that is outside
>>> the
>>> scope.
>>>> - I step you through my assistant.
>>>>
>>>> - In the end I show you the result of the assistant, which shows the
>>> correct P&I. Escrow is wrong, but I'm sure I can fix that in the
>>> editor.
>>> I'll accumulate escrow each month and then schedule a payment from
>>> escrow
>>> asset to tax and insurance expenses once all the above works.
>>>> - I let GnuCash enter the created transaction (ignoring from birth of
>>> the loan) and the transaction for 1 July 2022 is actually the P&I for 1
>>> May
>>> 2035.
>>>>
>>>> TIA
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gnucash-user mailing list
>>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>>> If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see
>>> https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists  for more information.
>>> -----
>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gnucash-user mailing list
>>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>>> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
>>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>>> -----
>>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> gnucash-user mailing list
> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
> To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe:
> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
> -----
> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
>

-- 
       Derek Atkins                 617-623-3745
       derek at ihtfp.com             www.ihtfp.com
       Computer and Internet Security Consultant