Open topic with navigation

Entering Payments and Balances

When adding an existing mortgage, you must enter sufficient information for Keystone to be able to correctly calculate the homeowner's balances from the point you start tracking it in Keystone. What you need to enter depends on how much historical detail you wish to track using Keystone. You must, however, enter enough payment and balance information so that Keystone can accurately calculate the homeowner's balances.

When entering new mortgages, you may have to account for balances the homeowner has at the time the mortgage begins, if applicable, as in for down payments or pre-paid escrow.

The most important date you enter is the date of first payment, or DFP. All balance and status calculations in Keystone are based on this date. You may use any of the following as the DFP, however once you pick a date, you must use it consistently in Keystone as the date of first payment.

• If you want to enter individual payments for an existing mortgage starting this month, use as the DFP the first day of the current month. This means you need to enter one summary payment for the day immediately preceding the DFP to represent all of the homeowner's payments to that point. You will then begin entering individual monthly payments starting on the DFP.
• If you want to start entering individual payments from the beginning of the current fiscal year, use the first day of the first month of the fiscal year as the DFP. Enter one summary payment for the day immediately preceding the DFP to represent all of the homeowner's payments through the end of the previous fiscal year. Then enter each individual payment the homeowner made during the current fiscal year from the DFP up through the present date.
• If you want to enter all historical payments for a homeowner, use the first day of the first month of the homeowner's mortgage as the DFP. Then enter each individual payment the homeowner made from the beginning of their mortgage up through the present date.

These instructions assume that you have entered all of the general information about the mortgage already. If you have not, go back to the Defining Initial Values for Mortgages section.

1. Enter a non-standard (NS) payment to summarize all payments made prior to the DFP.
   This will allow Keystone to calculate the correct balances starting from the DFP. If you are entering a new mortgage rather than an existing one, you likely do not need to perform this step.  However, for existing mortgages, if the homeowner is ahead, this will need to be adjusted.  See the Adjusting Payments section for more information.
   
• If you have not done so already, use the Closing Fees screen to enter any closing fees and to transfer those fees to the homeowner's escrow account. Because closing fees are considered escrow, they may be subject to escrow interest distribution rules. For more information about closing fees, refer to the Closing Fees Screen section. For more information about escrow interest distribution, refer to the Distributing Escrow Interest section.
1. Click the Payments button on the Mortgage/Payment Information screen to open the Payments screen. Use the first record line to enter any payments made or accrued prior to the DFP.
2. Enter the following information in order to create this summary non-standard payment.
• Check the NS check box to indicate this is not a standard monthly payment.
• Enter the day prior to the DFP in the Due and Paid fields in the Date pane.
  In other words, the payment's due date and paid date should be the last day of the month previous to the DFP.
• You should generally set the Method field in the Payment pane to BTD (Balance to Date), and leave the Method ID in the Payment area blank This shows that the record reflects all of the previous payments made by the homeowner.
• The Amount field in the Payment pane may be left blank.
  If you leave this field blank, enter the individual amount fields described below. Keystone will calculate this total Amount for you.
• Enter the total amount of principal paid up to the DFP in the Principal field in the Allocation pane.
  This is also the same as the difference between the initial principal value of the mortgage and the balance remaining on principal as of the DFP.
• Enter the balance of the homeowner's escrow account as of the DFP in the Escrow field in the Allocation pane.
• The Other and the Late Fee fields in the Allocation pane generally should be $0 for this record. If you wish to note the total of previous other debt payments for an existing mortgage, you may do so. If you choose to do this, you must enter the total of the Other Debt on the Mortgage / Principal / Escrow / Other Debt tab.
• The Notes field should indicate that you entered this record to bring forward previous balances for that homeowner.
3. Close the Payments screen.
   When you close the Payments screen, you will see a warning message. Entry date not in balance.  Should the Amount Paid be adjusted to the total?  You should click Yes.  This is the only time you should choose Yes when you see this message. 
   
   You will receive a second warning message that says the Due Date of [date] is not equal to the First Full Payment Date of [date]. Should the First Full Payment Date be made equal to this value?  You should choose No here. 
   
   The entry now closes. 
2. Record any payments received from the DFP to the present time, if applicable. 
   

Right after you enter the first (non-standard) payment as described in the previous step, no new record line will appear. To remedy this, close the Payments screen and reopen it. This causes the new record line to appear.

You should then individually record each regular mortgage payment after the DFP. The Due field in the first standard payment line (immediately below the non-standard payment you entered above) should be the DFP. The Date Due must always be the first day of the month in which the payment is due.

3. Record any escrow disbursements made from the DFP to the present time, if applicable.
   If you have not set up escrow payees, you need to do that before continuing. Refer to the Entering Recurring Escrow Payees section for more information about adding recurrent escrow payees, and the Entering Non-recurring Escrow Payees section for non-recurring ones.
   
   When you enter an Escrow Recurring Payee on the Escrow Admin tab they become part of each Escrow Payee Group. Escrow Grouping allows you to post disbursements to all the homeowners at one time that belong to the same Escrow Payee Group. For information about escrow groups, refer to the Using the Escrow Grouping Function section. For more information about entering the disbursements, refer to the Recording Disbursements to Recurring Payees section.
   
   To enter disbursements toward non-recurring escrow payees, use the Escrow Disbursements screen. For more information about entering these disbursements, refer to the Recording Individual Disbursements to Escrow Payees section.
4. Verify that the Payment Due amounts on the Payment Due/Schedule tab and the balance fields on the Mortgage/Principal/Escrow/Other Debt tab (both on the Mortgage/Payment Information screen) accurately reflect the homeowner’s current balances and status.
   
   If the balances are not correct, review each of these steps to make sure you entered all of the information correctly. You may also need to review the steps in the Defining Initial Values for Mortgages section and verify the information you entered there. In addition, you can refer to the Investigating Problems with Balances section if you are still having difficulty discerning the problem.