Record a premium or a paid-up addition

A premium and a paid-up additions (PUA) payment are easy to mix up. One of them is not an action the Agenda tracks.

Paying the premium keeps the policy in force. It is not one of the four actions you take at the insurance company. You can record that you paid it. The Agenda does not remind you to pay it. The premium can include a scheduled PUA amount. IBC Tool shows that part separately, as what your premium bills. It uses the Current PUA Payment on the policy, less any loan redirect, from the date each change took effect at the insurance company. A change that waits on the Agenda counts from the day you select Mark done. It joins the recorded figure when your insurance company states it on a reading or a statement, or when you import your transaction history. You do not record that scheduled part here.

Two PUA actions can go on the Agenda when you have not done them at the insurance company yet:

• Make a paid-up additions payment. This is extra cash on top of the premium, such as a bonus or a tax refund. Record it as a PUA contribution. The Agenda says Make a one-time PUA contribution. Do not record your premium bill, a term rider, or the PUA inside your premium as this payment. Those are not extra.
• Change how much paid-up additions is billed with your premium. This is a change to the Current PUA Payment. Transfer Savings does it when you enter an Additional Monthly PUA. The Agenda says Adjust … PUA payment.

Recording a premium and recording a contribution both start from Actions, and both need a policy. If you have no policy yet, the tiles say Add a policy first. Changing the amount billed with the premium is a different screen: Adjust on the policy, or Transfer Savings.

Steps

Record a premium payment

You do not need a complete history of premiums. Record one when you want the payment on file, or when a quarterly or annual premium notice is waiting. For a monthly premium, the screen can say: “We count each monthly draft as paid, so you do not need to record it.”

1. Open Actions and select Record Premium Payment.
2. Choose the Policy.
3. Check the Amount. If the policy has a premium, IBC Tool fills in one period’s bill: the premium plus the PUA the insurance company bills with it. Change the amount if the bill you paid was different. If the field is empty, enter the amount you paid.
4. Set the Date to the day you paid.
5. Optional: enter Notes, for example the bank draft or the check number.
6. Select Record Payment. The screen shows Premium Payment Recorded.

Record a paid-up addition

1. Open Actions and select Record PUA Contribution.
2. Set I’ve already made this contribution. Turn it on if the money has already gone to the insurance company. Leave it off if you are planning the contribution and still need to send it. See When you already made the contribution.
3. Choose the Policy.
4. Enter the Amount and the Date.
5. Optional: under Budget Categories, choose the category that should receive the money. To split it, select Add split and enter an amount for each category. The splits have to add up to the Amount before you can save. If you skip this, the contribution is recorded on the policy and is not assigned to a category.
6. Optional: enter Notes.
7. Select Record Contribution. The screen shows Contribution Recorded.

Below the Amount, IBC Tool can show how much PUA it estimates you can still pay this policy year. Treat that as an estimate. Your insurance company sets the real annual limit, and the estimate never blocks you from saving the contribution.

Transfer savings as a paid-up addition

Transfer Savings also records a PUA contribution. Use it when you are moving money from savings outside the policy into the policy, and you may also want to raise the amount you pay every period.

1. Open Actions and select Transfer Savings.
2. On Deposit Savings as PUA, choose the Policy and enter the Lump-sum PUA. Select Next.
3. On Assign to Categories, choose the category for the money. Select Next.
4. On Redirect Monthly Savings, enter an Additional Monthly PUA amount, or leave it empty if you are only moving the lump sum. Select Review.
5. On Review & Execute, check the amounts. Select Transfer Savings.

This path has no date field and no I’ve already made this contribution switch. IBC Tool dates the contribution today, and it always adds the contribution to the Agenda, because it assumes you have not sent the money yet. An Additional Monthly PUA amount also changes your ongoing PUA payment, so the Agenda can show a second item, asking you to adjust that payment at the insurance company.

To record a contribution you already sent, use Record PUA Contribution and turn the switch on. Transfer Savings is for money you are about to send.

A premium or a paid-up addition

Recording the premium does not add the scheduled PUA a second time. IBC Tool reads that part from the PUA payment your insurance company has on file, and shows it as what your premium bills.

A PUA contribution is the extra cash. It adds to the cash value and to the available loan amount once a snapshot confirms it. Until then, IBC Tool can only estimate the effect.

To see how the two PUA figures add up, open PUA contributions on the policy page.

• Recorded this policy year lists your latest reading, or an annual statement dated in this policy year, and the contributions you recorded after it.
• Scheduled by your premium lists what your premium bills. A monthly premium gets one line for each PUA rate it billed this policy year, with the dates of that rate. A quarterly or annual premium gets one line for each premium date. If the bills pass your Maximum PUA (Annual), the last line takes off the part above it.

What each record changes

A PUA contribution stays pending until a snapshot confirms that the insurance company posted it. Then the amount moves from pending into the category, if you chose one. The ~ usually comes off after the next snapshot that includes the money. See Record a snapshot.

You can delete a premium payment on the policy page. You can delete a contribution there until a snapshot confirms it. After a snapshot has confirmed it, delete that snapshot first, then the contribution. The snapshot is what locked the contribution in.

When you already made the contribution

I’ve already made this contribution keeps a contribution you already sent off the Agenda. What the switch can do depends on the Date, because a past snapshot may already include the money.

With the switch off, the Agenda shows Make a one-time PUA contribution of the amount. Send the money to your insurance company, then select Mark done. If you decide not to send it, select I’m not making it. That deletes the contribution. It does not leave a zero contribution behind. See Use the Agenda.

Record Another keeps the switch as you set it, so you can record a series of past contributions without turning it on each time.