Home Loan Interest Manager - My First Workbook

My First Workbook

Tip - If you need step-by-step instructions on setting up your workbook and adding your first loan, please refer to the Quick Start Guide on our website.

The summary on this page can be used as a reference each time you want to add a loan or mortgage to your Home Loan Interest Manager Pro workbook, and the detailed instructions further down the page can be used if you need more information on any of the steps.

Summary

To add a loan to Home Loan Interest Manager Pro you will need to:

1. Create an account.
2. Add a statement.
3. Add one or more transactions to the statement.
4. Assign categories to the transactions.
5. Add one or more interest rate changes.
6. Run the reports.
7. Fine-tune your account settings (refer to the Reconciliation Errors help topic).
8. Re-run the reports.

Detailed Instructions

The following step-by-step instructions will help you set up a new workbook and enter your first loan:

1. Create a new workbook (from the File menu choose New)
2. Save the workbook (from the File menu choose Save As)
3. Set up your loan account details (double-click on the "New Loan" entry)
4. Add a new statement (click on the Add button on the toolbar in the Statements view screen)
5. If you have your transactions in electronic format (e.g. if you have downloaded them from your loan provider's web site or you have them available in a spreadsheet), then import them into Home Loan Interest Manager Pro (click on the Import Transactions button on the toolbar, or from the Action menu choose Import Transactions). Refer to Importing Transactions for more information.
6. After importing transactions, you may need to adjust the sort order on transactions that fall on the same day but do not appear in the same order as on the statement. Refer to Transaction Sort Order for more information.
7. If you do not have access to your transactions in electronic format, then add them manually in the order they appear on the statement. Check that the balance matches the balance on your statement as you add each transaction.
8. Auto-Match the transactions in the statement (click on the Auto Match button on the toolbar, or from the Action menu choose Auto Match)
9. Manually match the remainder of the transactions. Interest transactions must be allocated a category of INTEREST – Periodic Interest (this will ensure they are included in the interest checker report). Note that each month there will be fewer transactions for you to manually match, as the Auto-Matching tool uses previous statements to allocate categories automatically.
10. As you manually match categories, look out for common or repeating words in transaction descriptions that could be used as category wildcards. For each suitable word or phrase add a Category Wildcard (from Category menu choose Maintain Categories). Refer to Category Auto-Matching for more information on category wildcards.
11. Add a new interest rate for each interest rate change listed on the loan statements (click on the Add button on the toolbar in the Interest Rates view screen)
12. Run the Balance Checker Report.
13. Run the Interest Checker Report.
14. If the first time you run the audit reports things don't look quite right, refer to the Reconciliation Errors topic for help on fine-tunning your account settings.
15. Re-run the Balance Checker and Interest Checker Report if required.
16. Run the Refund Calculator Report.
17. Run the Daily Interest Report.
18. Use the SUMMARY reports to review the year-to-year and statement-to-statement costs of your loan.
19. Use the PLANNING reports to perform what-if type analysis on the loan.