Escrow buckets let you divide one loan's escrow balance into named parts, such as Taxes and Insurance, so you can see how much of the balance belongs to each bill. The loan still has one escrow balance and one required escrow amount. Buckets only track how that balance is divided.
Setup is optional and per loan
Nothing changes on a loan until you set up buckets on it. Loans without buckets work exactly as before. You can set up buckets on one loan and leave the rest of your book alone.
Setting up buckets
On the loan's Escrow tab, find the Escrow buckets card and click Set up buckets.
- NoteHarbor starts you with Taxes and Insurance. Rename them, change the amounts, or click Add initial bucket for more (HOA, flood insurance and so on).
- Give each bucket a target amount: its share of the escrow collected with each payment. The targets must add up exactly to the loan's saved escrow requirement, which is shown at the top of the card.
- Enter a reason (5 to 500 characters).
- Check the box confirming you reconciled the saved escrow balance and these targets, then save.
Legacy / unallocated
Setup does not try to split money you already collected. The escrow balance on the day you set up buckets goes into a bucket named Legacy / unallocated. Setup does not split earlier payments and does not change the required payment. If you later edit or reverse a payment or escrow entry recorded before setup, that change also lands in Legacy / unallocated. To divide the old balance, move it into your named buckets with a transfer (below).
Changing targets, adding and archiving buckets
Click Edit bucket targets to change the targets. They must still add up to the saved escrow requirement. Each save can also do one of these:
- Add bucket: the new bucket starts at $0.00. Only future allocations change. Earlier balances and allocations stay as they were.
- Archive: only a bucket with a $0.00 balance and no open bills can be archived. Its history is kept, and you spread its target across the remaining buckets. An archived bucket can't be brought back, so add a new one if you need it again.
Moving money between buckets
Click Move money between buckets, choose the bucket to move from (any bucket with a balance, including Legacy / unallocated or an archived bucket) and an active bucket to move to, then enter the amount and a reason. The amount can't be more than the source bucket's balance. A transfer only changes how the balance is divided. The total escrow balance stays the same.
How payments are attributed
When a payment includes escrow, its escrow portion is split across your active buckets in proportion to their targets, to the cent. If you later edit or reverse that payment, the change uses the same split that applied when the payment was recorded, even if you have changed the targets since.
Manual escrow entries
On a loan with buckets, Add Charge / Distribution asks for a bucket as well as the usual type and category. NoteHarbor never picks the bucket from the category: you choose it, enter a reason, and click Confirm bucket details before saving. For a disbursement you can also pick the related bill. Editing or deleting an escrow entry on a loan with buckets needs a reason too.
Bills and receipts
The Bills list on the buckets card tracks what is due from each bucket.
- Add bill: choose a bucket, then enter the amount, the bill period and, if you like, a due date.
- Edit or Void: change or cancel a bill, with a reason.
- Attach receipt: add a PDF, JPG, PNG or WEBP file up to 4 MB to a bill, with a reason. Detach hides a receipt from the bill, but the original file and its record are kept.
Saving, editing or voiding a bill does not move any escrow money. Record the actual payment of a bill as a disbursement and pick the bill as its related bill. The bill's paid amount is the total of the disbursements linked to it.
Adjusting escrow on a loan with buckets
Adjust escrow works as usual, with one extra step. If you Set escrow balance, choose the bucket the change belongs to. If you Change escrow per payment, enter a target for each bucket that adds up exactly to the new amount. Click Confirm bucket details, then apply the adjustment. Editing the escrow amount in Edit Loan, and using Apply escrow to loan balance, ask for the matching bucket details in the same way.
New loans: Open Escrow after saving
When you create a loan that collects escrow, the wizard offers Open Escrow after saving. Check it to land on the new loan's Escrow tab, ready to set up buckets. It does not change the required payment, and you can always set up buckets later instead.
If you lose the response
On a loan with buckets, NoteHarbor keeps track of each escrow request so it is never applied twice, even if your connection drops before the answer arrives.
- If the result is unknown, you'll see a neutral message asking you to keep the same inputs and check status before trying another request. Click the same save button again with the inputs unchanged to check.
- If the request did go through, you'll see Previously completed. Nothing is sent a second time. Reload the page or review the loan history to see the result.
- If you deliberately enter the exact same inputs again after a request completed, NoteHarbor asks before starting a separate one.
Loans shared through account sync
If the source loan has buckets set up, a loan you receive through account sync shows its bucket breakdown, read only. You can't set up or change buckets on the synced copy.
Current limit: copying a loan with buckets
Copy Loan isn't available yet for a loan that has buckets set up. The copy does not complete and no new loan is created. Loans without buckets copy normally.