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Investigating Problems With Balances

From time to time, when reviewing your mortgage balances you may discover balances reported by Keystone that you think may be in error or that do not agree with those reported elsewhere, such as in bank statements. Often this is due to an entry error of some sort in Keystone. This section will help you investigate these possible errors to determine the cause of the balance discrepancy.

Possible issues

Choose the issue that most closely resembles your situation.

Keystone shows a different number of months due than should be due after a mortgage is set up.

Most commonly, this is because one (or more) of four important dates are set incorrectly in Keystone.

The following dates should always be the same for any particular mortgage, and should always be the first day of the month. On the Reports screen under Finance > Mortgages > Date Verification, you can generate a report that lists these dates for any homeowners whose dates are not all the same.

When entering delinquent mortgages, if the homeowner is behind part of a month, this will show as a full month.

For additional help with setting up a mortgage in Keystone, refer to the Entering Mortgages section.

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The amounts due are wrong; and the homeowner owed some back payments (or was paid ahead) when you started using Keystone to record mortgage data.

When you enter an existing mortgage that is ahead or behind at the time you add it to Keystone, you must make two entries on both the Principal History and Escrow History screens for that mortgage.

Review the Entering Mortgages section and verify that you have followed the process exactly. 

For a mortgage that is behind a portion of any month, be sure that you have entered the amount the homeowner owes for that month - not the amount they have already paid for that month - on the Principal History screen.  Mortgages that are ahead will appear as a negative amount.

The first standard payment entry for a mortgage must be made using the Date of First Payment (DFP), as it was entered on the Administration tab for that mortgage.  This date is the first month for which the homeowner has not made a full payment.  The payment amount for the partial month is the amount the homeowner owes, not what they have paid toward that month.  If the homeowner has being paying escrow at a different rate, the Escrow History must still use the same DFP as the rest of the mortgage payment, but the amount may be $0 until you get to a month where the homeowner owes escrow.

It is fine for the result to be negative in the case of a mortgage that is paid ahead as of the end of the previous month. The second payment entry must be made with a payment date equal to the first day of the following month, using the normal monthly payment amount.

For additional help, refer to the Principal History or Escrow History screen sections. For help with entering payments into Keystone, refer to the Entering Payments section.

For more on setting up existing mortgages that are delinquent or paid ahead when you enter them into Keystone, refer to the Entering Mortgages section.

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A homeowner has made a payment every month, but Keystone now shows them a couple months behind (or ahead).

It is common for homeowners not to pay exactly what is due each month. If a homeowner typically makes a partial payment, or pays late so that part of the check goes toward a late fee, it may not be long before they are several months behind. Likewise, someone who even occasionally adds $50 or $100 to their payment will quickly be several months ahead. In these cases, Keystone is correctly calculating the amounts due according to accepted standards. For more information about adjusting for these situations, refer to the Restructuring Mortgages section.

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The homeowner is behind in payments, but Keystone is not showing any late fee due; or the homeowner is X months behind, but Keystone is showing that the late fees they owe are less than X times the monthly late fee.

It is important to understand that Keystone assumes that all late fees have been either charged or forgiven at the time a payment is made. Keystone only calculates late fees forward from the date of the last recorded payment.

Therefore, if a homeowner is 6 months behind and makes a partial monthly payment at the beginning of the current month, Keystone will show no late fees due for the rest of the month even though their other balances still show them as 5.5 months behind. Next month, Keystone will show only one month's late fee due even though they then may be 6.5 months behind.

For a more in-depth example:

  1. It is now July 17, and the homeowner's last payment was March 1. The grace period is 15 days. The late fee is $15. On March 1, the homeowner was current on their mortgage.

    As a result, the homeowner is late on the April, May and June payments, and now also the July payment because it is past the 15th of the month. Keystone now shows that the homeowner owes four months of late payments ($60).
  2. On July 18, the homeowner makes one full monthly payment, but only pays that month's worth of late fees ($15).
    You enter the payment with $15 toward late fees.
    After this payment, the homeowner is three months behind. This payment covers the missed April payment. The homeowner is now late for May, June and July.
  3. On September 6, the homeowner makes another full monthly payment, but does not pay the late fee.
    For the above example, before you record this payment, Keystone will show that the homeowner's balance is equal to five month's worth of payments (May, June, July, August, and September - the current month). However, the homeowner is only shown to be one month's worth of late fees behind. This may not be what you expected.

    This is because the payment made in July, even though it only covered late fees for one month, caused Keystone to forgive all other late fees due to that point. The late fee counter "reset" with that payment. Between July 18 and September 6, only one payment is late (the August payment), therefore only $15 in late fees are shown for that one month.

    By default, Keystone pays late fees first, if applicable, when you enter a payment. If you change this in any way, Keystone assumes that you have forgiven any fees due.

For more discussion on recording payments, refer to the Entering Payments section.

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After entering some escrow disbursements, the homeowner's escrow balance is higher than it should be, or is getting larger rather than smaller.

Check to make sure disbursement amounts have been entered as negative numbers. Normal escrow disbursements are entered as negative. A positive number is used only in the case of a refund from a payee, an accounting adjustment, or other unusual occurrence.

For more information about entering escrow disbursements, refer to the Recording Individual Disbursements to Escrow Payees section.

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