Loan Starting Balance

Problem

Balance Sheet report has wrong amount for Credit Card or Loan account. Amount owed is way too high.

Also, a general explanation of how to handle Starting Balance in loan accounts

Diagnosis

User reports that the loan balance is wrong (way too big). They see this problem either in Balance Sheet, in account running total, or in the Reconcile command.

Nearly always, this problem is caused by an incorrect value in the Starting Balance field. This amount should be the amount owed when they started using Goldenseal accounting software, not the total line of credit available.

Best way to check this is to look at the Starting Balance amount in the Credit Card or Loan account. If it's exactly the same as the total line of credit, then it's probably wrong.

Solution

Make sure the starting balance is the AMOUNT OWED when they start using Goldenseal accounting software. It will probably be a negative number (money owed to the bank) rather than a positive number (money that the bank owes you).

Put the line of credit amount into the Minimum Balance field. For a loan or credit card, it will be a negative number.

Comments

Entered 12/10/01 by Dennis. Updated 10/22/2010.