Open a loan and click Record Payment.
The loan's waterfall, right in the modal
The modal shows a hint — "This loan applies: …" — spelling out the order this loan's regular payments flow through its buckets. New loans default to escrow → interest → principal → late charges; you can give any loan its own order (see The payment waterfall order).
Application types
- Regular — applied through the waterfall in the loan's configured order.
- P&I — pays principal and interest only; the escrow portion stays owed. The installment is satisfied for P&I purposes, so the loan is behind by the escrow only (and a P&I-satisfied row never draws a late fee).
- Principal-only / Escrow-only / Interest-only — 100% to that bucket.
- Payoff — clears the loan; future scheduled rows are removed.
- Advance / Draw Funding (Admin/Owner only) — the opposite direction: records money you sent out (a construction draw or protective advance), so the loan balance increases by the amount. No installment is marked paid, nothing is re-projected, and the payment shows in history with negative principal. On a loan with a draw schedule, the advance then appears in the Draws tab's Mark funded picker. An advance can't be held in suspense, added to a deposit batch (it's money going out, not a deposit), or edited in place — to correct one, delete it (the loan re-derives; a linked draw reads unfunded) and record it again.
The required minimum is netted
If an installment was already partially paid, the modal's required minimum is the remaining amount on the first still-due row — not the full scheduled payment. A note explains it: "This installment was previously paid $X of $Y — $Z remains." So a borrower catching up a shortfall pays exactly what's left.
Under- and overpayments
- Underpayment — choose to hold it in suspense (accumulates until there's enough to apply) or apply it as a partial payment.
- Overpayment — choose where the excess goes: advance to the next scheduled payment(s), principal, escrow, interest, fees, or next payment (held as credit). The two forward-looking choices are easy to confuse:
- Advance to the next scheduled payment(s) — applies the excess now onto the next open installment(s), oldest-first. It catches up an overdue loan or pays a current loan ahead: those installments are actually satisfied, so the next-payment date and payments-remaining move forward and the amount past due shrinks. Late fees aren't touched — use fees or a separate payment for those.
- Next payment (held as credit) — parks the excess unapplied in the loan's suspense balance. It does not pay the next installment or move the amount due; apply it later with Apply suspense on the Fees & Suspense tab.
Early payments
A payment recorded before the due date satisfies the upcoming installment — it matches forward to the next scheduled row rather than sitting unapplied.
Editing a payment
Edit a payment's amount or date and NoteHarbor re-allocates it automatically through the same waterfall, then re-derives everything downstream. Edits take an audit note.
Deleting a payment
Deleting a payment outright is an Admin/Owner-only action and requires a reason (at least 5 characters) — it's written to the audit trail as a deletion. Use it for genuinely erroneous entries; for corrections, prefer an edit.
Re-projection
When applied principal differs from the scheduled amount by more than $0.50 (a curtailment or principal-only payment), NoteHarbor re-projects the remaining schedule from the real balance at the fixed contractual payment — so extra principal shortens the loan rather than shrinking the payment.
Every payment is audited with before-and-after values.