How to Record a Loan
- Recording the initial loan
- Paying/Recording the down-payment
- Paying/Recording the principal and interest
Recording the initial loan
The first thing to do is to account for the initial purchase of the asset. If you are moving to ParishSOFT Accounting from a prior system, the asset and loan liability accounts may already be in place so you won't need to worry about accounting for the initial purchase of that asset. However, if you have just purchased an asset, you would need to account for the initial purchase of that asset.
The following journal entry will account for the initial purchase of the asset and the opening of the loan:
Debit the Asset account for the value of the loan plus any cash down payment
Credit the Liability account for the value of the loan plus any cash down payment
Note: most loans will include the cash down payment as part of the initial balance on the loan. When the initial balance shown on the loan documentation plus the cash down payment is shown on the journal entry, recording the cash down payment check (shown below), will bring the loan balance down to the same amount shown on the loan documentation.
Paying/Recording the down payment
To record the cash down payment as a check simply create a new bill, with the loan liability as the only line item for the bill. This will reduce the loan liability by the amount of the down payment thereby correcting the loan liability account balance. You can then create a check for the down payment or use the Assign Check Number button to assign a manual or Electronic Funds Transfer check number.
Paying the principal and interest expenses
When you record the monthly payment to the loan, it would be entered as a bill with the line items going to the loan liability and the interest expense accounts. The principal part of the payment would go to the loan liability account and the interest part of the payment would go to the interest expense account.
Then you can write a check to pay the bill or use the Assign Check Number button if you paid the bill electronically.
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