Help center · Accounts
How loan accounts work
Borrowed money OR per-person lending receivables — same type.
On this page
A Loan account in Extrack tracks either money you have borrowed (home loan, personal loan, EMI) or money you have lent out (a per-person "{Name}'s Lent" receivable, auto-created the first time you split or lend to someone). Opening-balance label: "Principal owed (opening)" for borrowed, "Principal lent (opening)" for lent. Optional fields: loan start date, term in months, annual interest rate (informational, no auto-amortisation).
Borrowed money
Add the loan with the outstanding (what you owe) as "Principal owed (opening)". Pay off principal as a Transfer from bank to the loan account; interest charges as Expenses from the loan account (categorise as "Interest paid").
Per-person lending receivables
Per-person "{Name}'s Lent" Loan accounts are auto-created the first time you split or lend to someone. Do not create them manually — they are tied to a person in the directory. The Accounts page has a "Lent" filter pill that lists only these.
You can also create a Loan manually and link it to a person via the "Lent receivable — link to person" optional field — useful for migrating existing balances from another tracker.
Frequently asked
Does Extrack calculate EMI?
No — the interest-rate field is informational. Use /tools/emi to compute the EMI; set the EMI itself as a monthly Recurring template.
Why does my loan balance not drop when I post the EMI?
Because the EMI is partly interest (Expense from the loan account) and partly principal (Transfer to the loan account). Split the EMI into both legs.
Related articles
Try this in Extrack
Open Extrack to follow the steps in a live workspace. Free for 30 days, no credit card.
Open Extrack