By Robin Berseth
Director, Events and Technology
​GMS, Inc.

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​It was great seeing everyone last month in Myrtle Beach, SC for the annual GMS Accounting and GMS RLSS Summits. In addition to the training, we always enjoy connecting with our clients. Some of you have been attending for many years and always find new information to help you in your day to day work environment, while others are new to GMS and attending for the first time. It’s a “family reunion” of sorts and something all of us at GMS look forward to each year. 

​By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Software Director

​1. Incorrect loan terms entered in the software.  Data entry mistakes, such as interest rate, daily vs. amortized interest computation, late fees and other fees to be collected from your client’s payments, can have a serious impact on repayment calculations.

2. Remiss in entering activity on a timely basis.  If loans and their subsequent activity are not entered as they occur, this can affect accuracy of reports submitted to funding sources and Board of Directors, loan balance when a payoff is requested, any fees to be withheld from payments, and credit ratings.

By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Software Director, GMS, Inc.

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Have you recently received a new computer and are now entering Loan Activity in your Grants Management Systems Revolving Loan Software and notice the Paid Thru Date and Next Payment Due Dates are appearing as invalid dates?  This can be easily remedied.  This indicates that your “Short date” is not set correctly within Windows.  Go to your Windows Control Panel and in the Search box enter “Short date”.  This will show you various date options.  

By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Software Director, GMS, Inc.

​When entering Loan Activity into your Grants Management Systems Revolving Loan Software, pay particular attention to the accuracy of the Next Payment Due field.  The date that is entered here determines the delinquency status of your loan.  It is used to determine if a late fee should be collected from the payment entered.  It is also utilized for delinquency purposes on the Aging Report, Payment Status Report, and Late Payment Notices.  

By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Software Director, GMS, Inc.

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​Are your reports taking a bit longer to appear on the screen than they previously have?  Does your software seem to be a little slower when you switch from one task to another?  Did someone exit the software in a non-standard manner?  When you are ready to make a backup of your database, is it substantially larger than normal?  All of these are reasons to perform a Compact and Repair of your Access database.

Grants Management Systems Revolving Loan Servicing Software has a utility available to assist you in doing this Compact and Repair.  If you do not have this icon on your desktop, please call or email service@gmsactg.com for instructions as to how to receive the GMS Utility.  You can also perform backups with this utility.  

By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Software Director, GMS, Inc.

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​One of the most important things you can do with regards to your data is to make regular backups.  You never know when something may happen to it.  Many things can go wrong such as it can become corrupted, mistakenly deleted, or the computer may get a virus, crash, or even be stolen or subject to some other catastrophe.  One never knows when this will occur and it can create a definite sinking feeling when it does!

By Marilee Floener, Revolving Loan Servicing Director

​We often receive questions regarding how to handle interest only loans. These loans aren’t much different from a loan that is going to start making full payments right away. The only difference is the amount of payment they are going to make in the first months of the loan. Of course, there are some ramifications to activity associated with these loans, so it really isn’t quite that simple.

When dealing with the issue of loans that don’t start out with regular payments of principal and interest, it is important to remember that the Loan Master file is intended to be a document that changes as the circumstances of the loan change. The regular payment amount, the method of interest calculation, the percentage of interest calculation and the frequency of payment should all reflect the situation as it exists at this point in time. When circumstances change, the Loan Master file should be edited to reflect those changes. For a complete audit trail, GMS recommends that whenever the loan data is changed, the Loan Master should be printed prior to editing, then again following editing. These can then be filed with the documentation that required the change. As a paperless alternative to printing and filing, why not export the document and save it to a location on your file server? You can then go to the Loan Master file, click on the Attach/Retrieve Files icon and save the location for quick and easy retrieval at a later time.