You take four actions at your insurance company. IBC Tool can record each one. It cannot sign in and do any of them. The Agenda collects the ones you have recorded and have not yet done at the insurance company. You do the action in the online portal or by phone, then you mark the item done. That is how the two stay in sync.
- Take a loan. The Agenda says Request a policy loan.
- Make a loan payment. The Agenda says Make a loan payment. Interest you still have to send uses this same item.
- Make a paid-up additions payment. This is extra cash on top of your premium, such as a bonus. The Agenda says Make a one-time PUA contribution.
- Change how much paid-up additions is billed with your premium. The Agenda says Adjust … PUA payment. The name includes your payment period, for example Adjust annual PUA payment.
Paying the premium is not one of the four. The premium keeps the policy in force. You can record that you paid it, and the Agenda does not list it. A change to the paid-up additions amount inside that bill is the fourth action.
An item is added when you record one of the four and the insurance company still has to do it. One case does not add an item, and you still do it at the insurance company: an advance, which is more money on a loan you already recorded. The details are under What stays in IBC Tool.
If you record an action you already did at the insurance company, use the “already” switch on that screen. The Agenda stays quiet for work that is finished.
Steps
- Open Agenda. The screen is Insurance Agenda, on the Pending tab.
- Read the items for each policy. Each item names the change and the amount.
- Make the change in the online portal, or call the insurance company and ask them to make it.
- Select Mark done on the item. It moves to the History tab, so you can see later that you handled it.
Items of the same kind on one policy show as one row, with the amounts added together. Two loan requests become one row. Mark done finishes every item in that row, so make sure you have done all of them before you mark the row done.
A one-time PUA contribution is a little different. Mark done means you sent the money. The contribution stays pending in IBC Tool until a snapshot confirms that the insurance company posted it. If you decide not to send the money, select I’m not making it instead. That removes the contribution. Do not mark it done if the money was never sent.
What goes on the Agenda
The table names the item for each action that gets one.
| Agenda item | What you recorded in IBC Tool |
|---|---|
| Request a policy loan of an amount | A new loan, with I’ve already taken this loan turned off |
| Adjust annual PUA payment to an amount | A change to the paid-up additions payment, from the policy page or from Transfer Savings. The first payment you set on a policy adds no item, because there is no previous payment to change. A new loan that repays itself from your paid-up additions payment also adds this item. Paying off that loan, setting its Status to Paid Off or back to Active, or deleting it, can add another one. So can an edit of an open loan that sends a different part of that payment to the loan, or that moves the loan into or out of a recurring expense category. So can a change to the funding rule of a recurring expense category, or to its recurring expense setting, while a loan in it is open |
| Make a one-time PUA contribution of an amount | A paid-up additions contribution you have not made yet, including one from Transfer Savings |
| Make a loan payment of an amount | A loan payment or an interest payment you have not made yet |
The PUA item uses your payment period. A monthly policy says Adjust monthly PUA payment. The amount is what the insurance company should collect, after the parts that repay loans. It can be different from the number you typed, because loan redirects are already taken out.
Example: on an annual policy, you lower the paid-up additions payment on the policy page. The Agenda shows Adjust annual PUA payment to the new amount. Ask the insurance company to change the payment to that amount, then select Mark done.
What stays in IBC Tool
The insurance company keeps one loan balance per policy. IBC Tool lets you split that balance into purposes, so you can see a car loan next to a rental-property loan even though the carrier shows a single number.
Those purposes, and the categories you assign borrowing room to, are your records. The insurance company does not see them, and nothing changes on the policy until an Agenda item says it should.
Example: you record a car loan and a rental-property loan on the same policy. Each one has its own category, so you can repay them on different plans. The money you borrow for the car still goes on the Agenda as Request a policy loan, unless you turn on I’ve already taken this loan. The category itself never does.
These changes stay in IBC Tool and add nothing to the Agenda:
- Assign available loan amount to categories.
- Choose the category of a loan when you record it. There is one exception. A recurring expense category with a funding rule, when no other loan in that category is open, starts a paid-up additions redirect. That loan does add an Adjust … PUA payment item, because the insurance company has to collect a different PUA payment.
This one still needs the insurance company, and it adds no Agenda item:
- An advance is taking more of a loan you have already recorded. If you have not requested that money yet, request it. The Agenda does not remind you.
Loan payment reminders
At the top of the Pending tab, This month’s loan payments lists the scheduled loan payments that are due soon. A reminder is not the same as an Agenda item. It is a prompt to record the payment.
- Select Record to open the payment screen. If you already paid the insurance company, turn on I’ve already made this payment, and nothing is added to the Agenda. If you have not paid yet, IBC Tool adds Make a loan payment so you remember to send it.
- Select Skip this payment to clear the reminder for this month, for example when you are not paying this month. Skipping does not record a payment, and it does not tell the insurance company anything.
The page of a loan shows Next reminder with its own Skip this payment button. The date is this month’s payment until you record it or skip it, even after its day has passed. After that, it is the next payment, which can be months away for a quarterly or annual loan. The button skips the payment on the date shown. Its reminder does not come back that month, and Record Loan Payment does not select the loan. The loan page then shows Reminder cleared for that month next to the reminder after it. It shows the same when you turned on I’ve already made this month’s payment as you recorded the loan, in a month with a payment due.
A loan holds one skipped payment at a time. Once you skip a payment, you can’t skip a later one of that loan until the skipped month is over. You can still skip an earlier payment, for example this month’s reminder after you skipped next month’s payment on the loan page. That skip replaces the later one, and the later reminder comes back in its month.
Keep history off the Agenda
When you record something you already did at the insurance company, turn on the switch for it. IBC Tool then adds nothing to the Pending tab for that action. A paid-up additions change shows as done on the History tab, and an older Adjust … PUA payment item for the policy closes, because the amount you set at the insurance company replaces it.
-
I’ve already taken this loan, on Record Policy Loan. See Record a loan you already have.
-
I’ve already adjusted my PUA for this loan, on Record Policy Loan, when the loan starts a paid-up additions redirect. That is a loan in a recurring expense category where no other loan is open, or a loan you already took that repays on a schedule with a PUA redirect.
-
I’ve already adjusted this with my insurance company, when you select Adjust for the paid-up additions payment on the policy page, when you change the Current PUA Payment in the policy’s Edit form, when you edit an open loan and change its PUA redirect or move it into or out of a recurring expense category, or when you change the funding rule of a recurring expense category, or turn Recurring expense on or off, while a loan in the category is open. When you turn Recurring expense on or off and the category has open loans on more than one policy, the form has no switch. Select Mark done on each item after you make the change at that insurance company. On a loan’s Edit form, the switch covers that loan’s policy. If the edit moves the category’s redirect to or from a loan on another policy, that policy gets its own item.
When you turn on the switch for Adjust or for the Current PUA Payment in the Edit form, enter the Date your insurance company made the change. It starts on today. If your insurance company changed the bill months ago, pick that date, and IBC Tool counts the new payment from then, so the scheduled PUA before today agrees with your bill. The date can’t be in the future or before the policy’s Issue Date, and it must be after the last change of the paid-up additions in your bill that IBC Tool has recorded. While an Adjust … PUA payment item waits on your Agenda, leave the date on today.
-
I’ve already made this contribution and I’ve already made this payment, when you record a contribution or a loan payment.
-
Update the policy, on the review page of a transaction history import, has no switch. When the review page shows the paid-up additions in your bill, IBC Tool saves the update as already made with your insurance company, because the file shows what it bills. When the page does not show them, a change of the Payment Frequency can add an Adjust … PUA payment item, as an edit of the policy does.
If an item is already on the Agenda for a change you have since made, select Mark done. You do not need to delete it.