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Entering Payments

You can enter payments for any active mortgage in Keystone. These payments can be standard monthly payments or non-standard (NS) payments, which can be used to enter any type of payment or adjustment that falls outside the homeowner's scheduled monthly payments. A mortgage must be marked as active with a check in the Active check box on the Mortgage/Payment Information screen in order to record or edit any payment information.

When entering normal monthly payments, you should leave the NS check box unchecked. Only payments that have no impact on the homeowner’s payment status should have their NS box checked.

Generally, each month's payment should be entered on its own separate line. A single payment may be recorded on multiple payment lines in some circumstances, such as:

• If the payment includes both standard amounts (regular scheduled monthly payments) and non-standard amounts (such as a lump sum to be applied to reduce the principal balance or to be applied to escrow), the payment should be recorded in two lines, with the NS check box checked for the non-standard portion of the payment. Refer to the examples in Restructuring a Mortgage for an illustration.
• If the payment includes more than one month's payments, you may choose to enter an individual payment line with a unique due date for each monthly portion of the payment, but with the same paid date and MethodID for each line. If you record a payment this way, you will not be able to print a single receipt for the entire payment.

By default, when you enter payments on the Payments screen, the Paid Date defaults to today's date. However, if you need to enter a batch of payments for a date in the past, while on the Mortgage/Payment Information screen, click the Set Date Paid button, enter that date in the window that appears, then click OK.

Now when you go to the Payments screen, the Paid Date will default to the date you just set until you close the Mortgage/Payments Information screen. At that time, the Paid Date will go back to its default of using today's date.

To enter payments in Keystone

1. Open the Finances tab in the Keystone ribbon and click Mortgage Payments.
   The Mortgage/Payment Information screen appears.
2. Click the Payments button on the Mortgage/Payment Information screen.
   The Payments screen appears.
3. Go to the new record line.
   When you click in any of the fields on this line, Keystone fills in many fields with default values:
• The Due field in the Date pane is set to the first day of the earliest month for which a payment is due. If the homeowner is current, this will be the first day of the month when the next payment is due. If a homeowner is in arrears, this will be the first day of the earliest month for which they are late. For example, if the homeowner is two months behind, this date will be the first day of the month two months prior.
• The Paid field in the Date pane is set to the current date.
  You can adjust this if the actual paid date is prior to the current date.
• The Method field in the Payment pane is set to the payment method used in the most recent payment record.
  You can adjust this as needed.
• The Amount field in the Payment pane is set to the total amount due as of the current date, along with the allocations of the amounts due toward Principal, Escrow, Other, and Late Fee.
4. Modify the payment amount in the Amount field if it is different from what Keystone automatically entered.
   When you enter an amount in the Amount field, or if you change the current Amount, when you press the Tab key, Keystone automatically allocates (or reallocates) the amount in accordance with standard practice; first paying any late charges due, then escrow, then other debt, and finally applying the remainder toward principal.  Keystone does not put partial payments into suspense; it will accept them and allocate as stated above.
   

Automatic allocation of payments is disabled when the Loading Mortgage History check box is checked in Affiliate Setup. In addition, when you press the Tab key while in the last field of a record, you will go directly to the first field in the next record when the Loading Mortgage History check box is checked.

This can be useful when you are entering a large amount of past mortgage data. But be sure to clear the Loading Mortgage History check box prior to resuming normal use of Keystone to enable automatic allocation of payments and the routine automatic calculations Keystone performs.

If the payment is insufficient to cover the outstanding late fees, a message. Clicking OK in this dialog box returns you to the Payments screen and forgives the unpaid late fee balance. Clicking Cancel cancels the current payment entry and returns you to the Payments screen.

5. Modify the Amount and allocation as needed.
   You may change how the payment is allocated. When you finish modifying the allocation, Keystone checks that the Amount is equal to the sum of the allocations. If the sum of the allocations do not equal the Amount, Keystone offers to adjust the Amount field to the total of those fields.
6. Click Yes or No according to whether you want Keystone to fix the imbalance. 
   Only on rare occasions will you click Yes, as in the case of entering lump-sum historical payments.
   
   You can use Affiliate Setup to define the level of Payment Confirmation your affiliate would like Keystone to use prior to saving the record in the database. There are three options:
   
• Confirm one-click entries (the default)
• Confirm all entries
• Confirm no entries

For more information, see the Mortgages Tab section of Affiliate Setup.

7. Clicking No returns you to the payment, allowing you to fix the imbalance manually.
   You cannot record a payment that is not in balance.

Recording any payment causes Keystone to assume that Late Fee amounts have been paid in full or else forgiven for the month in which payment is recorded, regardless of whether the allocations cover the actual late fee balances. Specifically, any late charge due that is not charged at the time you record the payment is not repeated in the future.

If you wish to assess a late charge but do not wish to take it from the current payment, record the late charge in the Late Fee field and offset it with a negative value in the Other field. This generates a positive balance due in Other debt. You must schedule this Other debt to be paid in a future month by entering an amount in the Other field of the Monthly Payment Schedule pane of the Mortgage/Payment Information screen.

Clicking the @ symbol (lower-right) allows you to set the position of the Payments screen within the main Keystone window. After you do this, Keystone will remember this position and display the Payments screen in that same position each time you open it. This can be used, for example, to position this screen relative to the Mortgage/Payments Information screen so that you can see the contents of both at the same time. You can set a new position for the screen by clicking the @ symbol again. For more information, see the Custom Screen Positioning section.