unofficial microsoft.public.money FAQ and A
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Q) Why don't my car Loan Payments show up as an expense in monthly expense reports?
A) The short answer is that the loan payments really aren't expenses--only the interest portion is an expense. The expense happened when you bought the car. The expense continues to happen as you pay the interest each month for the money you are still borrowing to pay for the car.
If you really want the payment to look like an expense every month, then do not setup a loan account in Money and use an expense category like Automobile:Payments. You may have to create this category.
Money (per standard accounting and personal finance management practice) tries to manage cash flow (like the principal component of your loan payments) as a separate issue from income and expense (like buying the car and paying rent on the money you borrowed to buy the car). It takes some getting used to but it is a much better approach to managing your money since it recognizes expenses when they occur and doesn't let simple cash flow mask where you are really spending money.
See also the answer to "My Credit Card Payments don't show up in Spending Reports--how come?"
Please see this disclaimer if you are using Money 2005 or this comment if you are using Money 2006.
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| How to do things in Money: Accounts/Categories/Payees Q) When should I create an Account instead of a Payee? Aren't Payees just Accounts? Or is my Payee really a Category? |
How to do things in Money: Data/File Management Q) Can a new version of Money open my old version data file/backup file/backup diskette(s)? |
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Last update: 10 December 2006 |
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