Margill Loan Manager – How to eliminate an Outstanding amount when the final loan balance is 0.00

Question: I’m trying to apply a payment in order to elimintat the outstanding balance in a loan. Can you explain how to do it?

Answer: The outstanding amount is somewhat of a theoretical amount in more complex or irregular loans. The amount is based on what is actually paid (“Payment” column in the Payment schedule) versus what was to be paid (“Expected Pmt” column in the Payment schedule).

If the ending balance (at the end of the loan) in the Payment schedule is 0.00, then the outstanding amount is no longer really relevant. If you absolutely want to eliminate this amount, change, for one of more payments, the “Expected Pmt” amount to 0.00.

In the following example, a final payment of 18,450.37 was made. Depending on the order of operations to enter this amount, it is possible that the amount in the Expected Pmt column was modified to 18,450.37 when the expected payment was actually 8793.68.

So simply change the amount of the Expected Pmt to 8793.68 or to 0.00 and the outstanding amount will be eliminated:

The Expected Pmt amount may need to be modified for one or more previous lines if the outstanding amount is too high and the Expected Pmt amounts have been mismanaged in the past.

In order to change an Expected Pmt amount, you must have these rights:

Also note that in System settings > Line Payment Statuses, the Expected Pmt can be set to always be 0.00. This is the case for compensatory payments (which compensate for unpaid or partial payments) or for additional payments not included in the contract:

Margill Loan Manager – Update of Borrower’s data with Global Changes and an Excel sheet

Margill Loan Manager – Update of Borrower’s data with Global Changes and an Excel sheet

Question: I must make sure that all my loans include a name, address, city, province (or state), postal code (or Zip) and country for the Borrowers in a specific format.  How can I do that in Margill?

Answer: This operation can be done quickly with Global Changes via an Excel sheet.

 Steps:

  • Create a personalized template in Reports > Record List with all the data that needs to be verified and updated, making sure to include the Unique ID for the Borrower in the first column:

2) Create the report for all Records (you can exclude the archived or closed loans – Use Advanced Queries to include the desired loans in order to reduce the size of the report if you have thousands of loans.). Produce the report.

Export data to Excel:

3) Clean up the Excel sheet.

  • Lines 5 and 6 do not have Borrowers. Either add a Borrower or eliminate the lines.
  • Duplicated lines (we can easily see them in column A) can all be eliminated – these people have many loans – we only want Borrowers, not loans.
  • Here is the result after the clean-up including the State and Country that now have 2 standard letters:

In my situation, I only need to update the State/Province, the Country and the Postal Code. I therefore eliminate everything that should not be updated in my Excel sheet while absolutely keeping the Borrower Unique Identifier which is the “key”, allowing me to link my Excel sheet to the correct Borrower.

You would have tens, hundreds or thousands of Borrowers for real:

4) Update the columns one by one via Global Changes for Borrowers:

In the Main Margill window, go to Borrower under File > right click on the mouse > Global Changes:

Click on the Excel icon. The ? gives you additional instructions about the simple Excel sheet required.

Column A is the Borrower Unique Identifier (not the loan) and Column B is the data to be imported or updated. In the first import, we want to change the State/Province and therefore in the right menu, choose “Borrower State, Province”. Then choose the Excel file by clicking on the orange file icon.

Note that for Borrower 10001, no update is required since the data is unchanged (the “Submit” column is therefore not checked).

Click on “Save” and the data will be updated.

Afterwards, we want to update the Country.  In Excel, copy the Country data into column B, save the sheet, then import (I simply deleted the State/Province column but it is wise not to destroy the columns or make a copy of the Excel sheet before deleting data). Do the same for the Postal Code/ZIP and other data as needed, one by one.

Note that the “Automated Imports” (API) would allow you to update all this data in one operation. There is also a Salesorce API available (not covered here):

Is it possible to issue a refund to a customer who overpaid, directly from Margill?

Q: Is it possible to issue a refund to a customer who overpaid, directly from Margill?

A: Do you mean issuing a credit to the customer directly in Margill like when you do a pre-authorized debit with Perceptech / Acceo / Transphere (in Canada)?

The answer is no with Perceptech / Transphere but with our other electronic payment partner, VoPay, yes it is possible by eTransfer (Interac credit). Credits to borrowers can be up to $25,000.

For the Payment schedule, if the borrower has overpaid, then you can create an Additional principal type Line status – which you would rename to Refund (will only refund principal, but you can also refund interest ) and the amount would be negative to increase the principal (and interest if needed) and the balance.

Don’t forget to add these to your reports and mathematical equations (for reporting) as needed as these become new transactions types.

Open banking

In Budget 2024, the Government of Canada announced its plan for the implementation of consumer-driven banking.

Consumer-driven banking, also known as open banking or consumer-directed finance, refers to frameworks that allow consumers and small businesses to securely transfer their financial data through an application programming interface (API) to approved service providers of their choice. Consumer-driven banking enables consumers to securely use data-driven financial services that can help them better manage their finances and improve their financial outcomes.

Consumer-driven banking may offer many benefits, but it’s important that Canada introduces it in a way that protects consumers.

For more information about the subject, visit this page on the Government of Canada’s website.

A little banking humor!

Always borrow from pessimists, they won’t expect to get paid back…

Team Margill at ABA Techshow

For 38 years now, American Bar Association Techshow has has brought together legal professionals and technology. This year, the ABA Techshow will take place at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago from February 14 to the 17th, 2024. Come say say hello to the Margill Team at booth 332 to learn more about how our software can help your law firm with Litigation and Client finance.

 

Criminal interest rate: Canada sets high stakes for high rates

As it revisits decades-old regulations on what constitutes a criminal interest rate, Canada challenges lenders to remain profitable under substantially tighter margins.

These Regulations are necessary to implement amendments brought by the Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1 to section 347 of the Criminal Code. The amendments will lower the criminal annual rate of interest from the current 60 per cent (effective annual interest rate) to an annual percentage rate (APR) of 35 per cent. They will also narrow the types of agreements and arrangements to which this criminal offence applies. Though not yet in force, the Regulations aim to combat predatory lending practices and reform Canada’s framework for consumer financial protection and regulation.

To read the whole story by Guillaume Talbot-Lachance, Matthew Connors and Kaliopi Dimitrakoudis, follow this link.

Margill in Tunisia

 

Ambassador Lorraine Diguer and the team of trade delegates from the Canadian Embassy in Tunisia met with Mr. Marc Gélinas, founding president of the Canadian company Jurismedia inc., his team as well as representatives of their Tunisian partner DevXperts (5Xperts Group). The discussion focussed on opportunities in Tunisia in addition to celebrating success of this excellent collaboration between actors working in the field of information technologies in both countries.

On the picture, you can recognize: third from the left Patrick Bronsard, senior programmer at Margill, Marc Gélinas, Ambassador Lorraine Diguer, Christiane Duguay, programmer, Mario head programmer and Sophie Binette also programmer at Margill.

To see original post on Facebook, follow this link.

 

Do I Have To Pay Back This Loan?

Joe Patrice, senior editor at “Above The Law“, offers a helpful guide for anyone wondering how borrowing works for different people.

Earlier this week, Jonathan Turley’s thirst for attention led him to go on TV to describe “car loan payments” as corruption that “none of us have seen the likes of.” Turley is, of course, an idiot. But it did get us thinking: what are the rules for paying back money you’ve borrowed? So we’ve created this helpful annotated guide!

To find out more, follow this link.

Update to the Google Personalised ads policy

In February 2024, Google will update its Personalised ads policy to introduce new limitations on personalised ads relating to consumer financial products and services. Specifically, Google’s ‘Credit in personalised ads’ policy will be expanded to cover ‘Consumer finance in personalised ads’. The updated policy will read as follows:

‘In the United States and Canada, the following sensitive interest categories cannot be targeted to audiences based on gender, age, parental status, marital status or postcode.

Find out more by following this link.