You do not need your policy history to start. Add each policy as it is today. Past statements are optional. IBC Tool does not sign in to your insurance company. You upload a document or type the numbers, and you still take the actions there yourself.
Add your policy.
This is how the dashboard learns what you can borrow today, once today’s available loan amount is on the policy.
Upload a policy summary from your insurance company’s online portal, your latest annual statement, or your contract. IBC Tool reads the document and fills in the policy. No document? Type the details.
A portal summary that shows today’s Available Loan Amount can become your first snapshot when you save. An annual statement or a contract does not include that number, so you record a snapshot from the portal afterward. If the policy has no loan, the loan principal is 0.
What you get: a dashboard that shows what you can borrow today, across all your policies. One policy and today’s figures are enough.
Record your loans.
Your insurance company keeps one loan balance per policy. You record each loan you already have so you can see what each one is for, and how you repay it.
Select I’ve already taken this loan, then enter the amount, the date, and the amount that remains. You do not rebuild the payments of the past. That switch means the Agenda does not ask you to request the loan again, because you already took it. Then choose how you repay each loan: on a schedule, interest only, or hold until you are ready.
What you get: all your policy loans in one place, and a reminder when a scheduled payment is due.
Steps: Record a loan you already have
Plan by category.
Give each part of what you can borrow a job: a car, a vacation, a recurring expense. Set a funding rule for a category, or assign the amount by hand. When you plan a new loan, choose the category that backs it.
The money stays in the policy. A category is your label. It does not move cash, and your insurance company does not see it.
What you get: you see what each part of your borrowing room is for, and what is still unassigned. When a plan needs the insurance company, it can show on the Agenda. The four actions are a loan, a loan payment, a paid-up additions payment, and a change to the paid-up additions billed with your premium.
Steps: Choose a category funding rule
Steps: Fund a recurring expense
Each month.
Two kinds of work. First, record what changed. Then handle anything the insurance company still has to do.
- Record Snapshot. Upload the policy summary from your portal, or enter today’s values. This is how the dashboard learns the new available loan amount. Steps: Record a snapshot
- Record PUA Contribution. Record extra money for a policy, such as a bonus or a tax refund. This is a paid-up additions payment, one of the four actions. It goes on your Agenda unless you select I’ve already made this contribution. The contribution stays pending until a snapshot shows that the insurance company posted it. Steps: Record a premium or a paid-up addition
- Record Loan Payment. Record the loan payments for this month. A payment you have not sent yet goes on your Agenda as Make a loan payment. Interest you still have to send uses that same item. For a payment you already sent, select I’ve already made this payment. Steps: Pay a loan
- Agenda. Do each open item at the insurance company, then select Mark done. Paying the premium is not one of the four, so recording it does not add an item. A change to the paid-up additions inside that premium does. Steps: Use the Agenda
Past statements, any time.
Past annual statements and the transaction history fill in your history, but IBC Tool works without them. The setup card on the policy page lists the steps that remain. Each statement that you add becomes a snapshot in your history. Add them when you have the documents.