Understanding the Loan Amortization feature
The Loan Amortization feature supports both sides of a loan:
Loan payables — money a business owes to a lender.
Loan receivables — money a business has lent to a customer.
You can:
Build an amortization schedule from your loan's terms
Exclude payments that were already made before the loan was added to Double
Check each scheduled payment against what actually hit the loan account
Preview and post interest-adjusting journal entries, individually or in bulk
Post entries automatically on the payment date
Undo a posted entry when something needs to be corrected
Mark a payment as missed and recalculate the rest of the schedule
Reconcile your loan account against the amortization balance
💡Loan Amortization is available through Scale and works for QBO clients only.
How Double posts loan entries
Double uses a split posting model, so it's worth understanding before you set up your first loan.
You book the payment. Record the cash side of the loan payment the way you normally would — from the bank feed, a check, or a manual transaction.
Double books the interest adjustment. Using the amortization schedule, Double posts a journal entry that moves the correct interest amount for the period, so the principal/interest split lands where it should.
For a loan payable with $150 of interest in the period, Double posts:
Account | Debit | Credit |
Interest expense | $150.00 |
|
Loan payable |
| $150.00 |
For a loan receivable, the entry is reversed — Double debits the loan receivable account and credits interest income.
💡 Double does not post the cash side of the payment, and there is no cash or bank account to select during setup. Keep booking loan payments as usual.
Adding a loan
You can add a new loan directly from the Close page.
In the Add loan modal, start by choosing the loan type at the top:
Select Payable if the business owes money to a lender.
Select Receivable if the business has lent money to a customer.
When adding a loan, enter the following details:
Loan name
Lender/Vendor (payables) or Customer (receivables)
Loan origination date
First payment date
Term (in months)
Payment amount
Loan amount
Annual interest rate
Next, connect the accounts Double should post to:
For a payable: an Interest expense account and a Loan payable account.
For a receivable: an Interest income account and a Loan receivable account.
Review the schedule preview, then select Create schedule. Double generates the full amortization schedule, showing the principal and interest breakdown for every payment over the life of the loan.
Posting entries automatically
When setting up a loan, you can turn on Auto-post so Double posts each interest-adjusting journal entry for you.
Auto-post uses the payment date as the journal entry date.
Draft entries dated at least one day in the future post automatically on that date, and show a status of Scheduled in the meantime.
Entries dated today or earlier still need to be posted manually - individually or in bulk.
💡 Auto-post is off by default on new loans, and stays off for any loan created before the setting was introduced. You can leave it off and post everything manually.
Setting up a loan that's already in progress
If you're adding a loan that started before you began tracking it in Double, some payments in the generated schedule will already have been made. You can remove those from your working list instead of adjusting them one by one.
To exclude a single payment, open the ⋯ menu in the Actions column and select Exclude.
To exclude several at once, select the rows with the checkboxes and choose Exclude from the selection bar. The bar shows how many rows are selected and includes a Clear selection option.
Excluded payments move to the Excluded tab and drop out of New payments. To bring one back, select Include from its actions. Payments that have already been posted can't be excluded.
Checking payments before you post
Before posting the interest adjustment, the New payments schedule shows you whether the payment you expected actually landed in the loan account. Double compares the scheduled payment amount against transactions recorded to that account for the close period.
The payment amount is color-coded:
Green — the scheduled payment matches a recorded payment.
Orange — the amounts don't match, or no payment was found.
Black — the payment is for a future period, so no match is expected yet.
Select the amount to open the detail panel. It reads View matching payment for a match and View discrepancy otherwise, and includes a link to the related transaction when Double found one.
💡 Matching is based on the amount recorded to the loan account in that period, not the exact date. Multi-line transactions work fine — only the line(s) hitting the loan account is compared.
Posting entries to QuickBooks Online
Loan payments are grouped into tabs: New payments, Posted payments, Excluded, and Missed.
From New payments, expand a row to preview the journal entry before it posts. The preview shows each line item with its account, description, debits, credits, and vendor/customer name.
When you're ready, select the check icon (Post journal entry) to post a single entry, or select multiple rows and post them together in bulk.
Double posts the interest-adjusting journal entry to QuickBooks Online.
The payment moves to Posted payments, where you can expand the row to see exactly what was posted.
Select the arrow icon (View journal entry) to open the entry in QuickBooks.
Undoing a posted entry
Posted payments are locked and can't be edited. If you need to change one, undo the post first.
Go to the Posted payments tab.
Open the ⋯ menu in the Actions column and select Undo post.
Confirm in the modal.
The journal entry is deleted in QuickBooks Online and the payment returns to New payments with a status of Draft, or Scheduled if auto-post is on. It becomes editable again.
⚠️ If the QuickBooks period is locked, Undo post is disabled and hovering shows Locked period.
Handling a missed payment
If a payment wasn't made for a period, you can reflect that in the schedule so the remaining balance stays accurate.
Open the ⋯ menu on the payment and select Mark as missed. The confirmation modal explains what will happen:
The payment amount for that period is set to $0.
The beginning and ending balance for the period stay the same.
Interest continues accruing into the next payment period.
No journal entry is posted for that payment, including under auto-post.
The remaining schedule is recalculated.
Once confirmed, the payment moves to the Missed tab showing $0.00 payment, $0.00 interest, and $0.00 principal. Periods before the missed payment are locked from editing.
The loan keeps its original term. Any principal still outstanding at the end is added to the final payment as a balloon payment, so the final ending balance is $0.00.
To reverse this, select the restore (↺) action on the row in the Missed tab. The payment returns to New payments with its original amounts, the schedule recalculates, and earlier periods unlock.
💡 Mark as missed isn't available for payments in Posted payments or Excluded. For a posted payment, undo the post first.
💡 Catching up later? Enter the total amount paid in the month it was actually paid. Anything above the accrued interest is applied to principal.
Updating a loan schedule
Made an extra payment? Need to true up to the bank statement? Edit the payment from the Details page.
Changing a future payment amount adjusts the principal portion of that payment, and the change ripples through the rest of the schedule.
Changing the interest on a payment adjusts the interest/principal allocation without changing the payment amount.
💡 Note: Edits only affect payments that haven't been posted. Journal entries already in QuickBooks aren't changed — undo the post first if you need to correct one. Excluded payments aren't included when the schedule recalculates.
Reconciling your loan account
You can reconcile your loan account against the amortization schedule the same way you would for Accruals.
In the Account Reconciliation section, switch the Compare to amount to Loans. Double shows the starting loan balance minus posted payments through the close date, so you can compare it against the balance in your ledger.
Creating a loan with Ask Double
You can also set up a loan schedule through Ask Double instead of filling out the form. Describe the loan terms and Ask Double will create the schedule for you.
Deleting a loan
To remove a loan, Delete the task.
⚠️ Deleting a loan permanently removes the amortization schedule and all future non-posted payments. Journal entries that have already been posted will remain in your ledger.