It is possible that the breakdown of a payment into principal and interest that Quicken makes will be incorrect. Rounding errors, payment delays, and perhaps even a bug in either Quicken’s or the bank’s calculations may mean that the loan balance that Quicken shows for a loan or mortgage is incorrect.

Understanding the problem

When the ending balance that Quicken shows is incorrect, it simply means that Quicken has incorrectly split one or more loan payments between principal and interest. What you need to do, in this case, is adjust the ending balance and categorize the adjustment as falling into the same interest expense category and subcategory as you are using to track the interest component of the loan payment.

To make this sort of adjustment, display the account register for the loan or mortgage that you need to adjust. Then click Update Balance button at the top of the loan account register window. Quicken then displays the Update Account Balances dialog box.

Fixing the principal balance error

To adjust, or correct, the loan balance, enter the correct ending balance in the Update Balance To box and the ending balance date in the Adjustment Date box. You should be able to get this information from the end-of-year or end-of-month loan statement that alerted you to the loan balance error.

Fixing the interest expense error

To fix the interest portion of the loan record-keeping error, enter the interest category and subcategory you used in the Category For Adjustment boxes. For example, if you used Loan as the category and Mortgage Interest as the subcategory, enter this category and subcategory in the two boxes. While it might seem curious to use the loan interest categories for categorizing an adjustment to the loan balance, remember that loan payments are split between principal and interest. Therefore, if you overstate the principal components of a loan payment, you implicitly understate the interest components—and vice versa.

In effect, adjusting the loan ending balance is the same thing as adjusting the cumulative principal payments made on the loan. And that means you need to also adjust cumulative interest payments made on the loan.

Seattle tax CPA & author Stephen L. Nelson wrote Quicken for Dummies and more than 100 other books as well. Nelson holds an MBA in Finance and an MS in taxation. His web site is http://www.stephenlnelson.com

Finally, you have some time to personalize your desktop with an interesting screensaver. But wait… What’s that? Why in the world the system prevents you from doing that? The screensaver controls are grayed out or, even worse, the whole Screensaver tab is missing from Display Properties. Don’t panic! This article will help you change things for the better.

I’ve found that people who use Windows 2000/XP often can’t enjoy screensavers because their system is configured in a way that prevents them from doing that.

Unless you are very experienced in administrating Windows, you may stuck with the problem. If you ever found yourself or your friend in a situation like this, add this article to your arsenal of screensaver tips.

Most of the time people encounter the problem with office computers. I should warn you, though, that some companies have a strict screensaver policy. Usually they allow only certain or no screensavers at all to be used on office computers.

If you are not sure how your company treats screensavers, I recommend you to consult your system administrator before applying any of the changes described below to your system.

So why can screensavers be inaccessible on your system?

As you know, Windows 2000 and Windows XP had many improvements over Windows 95/98 and Windows Me that made lives of many users easier and more comfortable.

But that’s not all that made these operating systems so popular. Their developers also haven’t forgotten about people who are responsible for administrative tasks when it comes to computers shared by different users and large computer networks.

Windows 2000 and Windows XP introduced a lot of new features needed specifically for their administration. Controlling/disabling screensavers was among them.

No matter whether it was their intention or an accident, your system administrator or the person who configured your PC could use this feature to your disadvantage. Now you’ll have to use it once again and regain control over screensavers.

Here’s what you should do:

1. Click Start and then click Run…
2. Type "gpedit.msc" and press Enter.
3. A window will open with a tree on its left. Expand the User Configuration node, then expand Control Panel and click Display.
4. Now look at the policies in the list to the right. Make sure that the policies starting from Hide Screen Saver Tab and ending with Screen Saver Timeout all have their state set to Not Configured.
5. If any of them has a different state, double click the line with the policy, select Not Configured and click OK.
6. Now close the Group Policy window.

Now you can open Display Properties and see whether screensavers are back. If they aren’t, step back and check if you carefully followed all the steps described above.

Note that you can see a window saying you don’t have permission to access Group Policy window when doing the step 2. That will happen if you are working under a restricted user account. You will have to log under an account with Administrator’s rights or contact your system administrator.

With a little creativity, you can use the information in this article to prevent your kids and other unauthorized users from messing with your screensavers. The procedure is basically the same. The only difference is that you should specify meaningful values for screensaver related items instead of Not Configured.

About The Author

Roman Kramar is a software developer who enjoys writing screensavers as his time permits. Visit his site at http://www.elasticsystems.com/ to find out more about screensavers and his work. webmaster@elasticsystems.com