Before you start
Use this workflow for liabilities that are not mortgages: personal loans, portfolio-backed loans, business loans, tax loans, margin-style borrowing and credit card balances. Choose Loan when the debt has a term or repayment schedule. Choose Credit Card when the balance is revolving card debt.
Detailed steps
Open Debts > Loans for term debt
Use Loans for personal, business, tax, margin-style or portfolio-backed debts that are not property mortgages and are not credit card balances. Starting in the correct tab helps you verify the record after saving.
Choose the correct debt type
Click Add Debt and choose Loan, Credit Card, Mortgage or Import Debt Statement. Do not choose based only on the lender name. Choose based on how the debt behaves: term or amortizing debt goes under Loan; revolving card balances go under Credit Card; multi-row lender files can go through Import Debt Statement.
Complete the Loan form
Enter the loan name, lender, balance, currency, interest rate, maturity, payment amount and payment frequency. Balance is the amount still owed. Rate is the annual rate. Payment amount is the scheduled recurring payment. Maturity is the scheduled end date, not the next payment date.
Save and verify the Loans table
After saving, check the Loans table. The row should show the name, institution, type, balance, rate, payment and maturity. If the loan appears in the wrong tab, the debt type was probably wrong and should be corrected before you rely on Net Worth or Forecast.
Open Debts > Credit Cards for revolving balances
Use Credit Cards when the balance is revolving and normally has no fixed maturity date. Do not use Loan for a card balance just because the card issuer offers installments; keep ordinary card balances in Credit Cards unless you have converted them into a separate term loan.
Complete the Credit Card form
Enter the card name, issuer, outstanding balance, currency, APR and payment amount. Leave maturity blank when the balance is revolving. A high APR matters because Capital Review and Forecast need to understand expensive credit pressure.
Save and verify the Credit Cards table
After saving, check the Credit Cards tab. The row should show the issuer, card type, balance, APR and payment. If the maturity column says n/a, that is expected for a normal revolving card balance.
Open Net Worth and check total liabilities
Return to Net Worth and confirm the liability total increased by the saved debts. Net worth should decrease because debts reduce assets minus liabilities. If only the table changed but the dashboard did not, refresh and verify the active portfolio.
Field guide
The liability label shown in Debts and review screens.
Use a specific name you can match to the lender or card statement.The lender, card issuer or source statement.
Use the statement name rather than a vague label.Current amount still owed.
Use the latest outstanding balance, not credit limit, original principal or monthly payment.Currency of the debt balance.
Do not convert manually unless the statement already reports the converted balance.Annual rate or APR currently applied to the debt.
Enter 7.8 for 7.8%, not 0.078.Recurring payment expected for the selected frequency.
Use the scheduled payment or minimum payment, not a one-off extra repayment.How often the payment amount occurs.
Monthly is common; change it when the lender uses weekly, biweekly, quarterly or annual payments.Scheduled end date for a term loan.
Use for term debt; leave blank for ordinary revolving credit card debt.Loan, Credit Card, Mortgage or imported debt statement.
Pick the type by debt behavior, not by habit or where you happened to start.Decision rules
What it adds
- Prevents hidden liabilities from distorting net worth.
- Supports liquidity and debt-service analysis.
- Helps identify high-rate or maturity-risk obligations.
What it does not do
- Capitelist does not replace lender statements.
- Fees, covenants and penalties require notes or documents.
- Credit-card balances may change daily and need frequent updates.
Common mistakes
What to check
- Do not enter available credit as an asset.
- Use current balance, not credit limit, as the liability.
- Separate business or tax debt when it has different risk or ownership context.
- Review variable-rate and margin debt more often than fixed-rate debt.
Entering the credit limit as the balance.
Entering the monthly payment as the balance.
Using Loan for a normal revolving credit card balance.
Leaving a high-rate credit card outside Debts because it is paid automatically.
Entering APR as a decimal instead of a percentage.
Adding the same lender statement manually and then importing it again.
Putting a mortgage under Loan instead of Mortgage.
Ignoring payment frequency, which can make Forecast understate debt service.
After you save
- Check the correct debt tab after saving.
- Compare balance, rate and payment against the lender statement.
- Open Net Worth and confirm liabilities increased.
- Open Capital Review if the debt is high-rate, near maturity or newly added.
- Use Import Debt Statement next time when the file has multiple facilities, many card rows or detailed statement data.
- Update balances whenever the lender statement changes materially.