Comparing Loans Across Your Children
Before you adjust interest rates, extend a repayment period, or settle a balance early, it pays to see the full picture. The Loans overview page gives you a consolidated view of every active and completed loan across your family — so you can make informed decisions without toggling between individual child profiles.
What the Loans Overview Shows You
When you open the Loans overview, you’ll see a table that surfaces the key data points for each child’s loan at a glance:
| Column | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Child | The name and avatar linked to the loan |
| Principal | The original amount issued |
| Balance remaining | What the child still owes |
| Repayment progress | Percentage paid off to date |
| Next due date | When the next scheduled repayment falls |
| Status | Active, overdue, paused, or settled |
| Interest rate | The rate applied at the time the loan was created |
If a child has multiple loans, each appears as a separate row. This matters more than it might seem — a child in Nairobi who borrowed KES 500 for a school project and KES 200 for a personal purchase will show two rows, each with its own repayment cadence.
Reading Status Signals
The Status column is where most parents spend their attention. Here’s how to interpret each state:
- Active — Repayments are running on schedule. No action needed unless you want to modify terms.
- Overdue — A repayment was missed. The child’s wallet may not have had sufficient balance on the due date. Check their allowance schedule or any pending transactions.
- Paused — You or the child manually paused repayments. Useful during school holidays or when an allowance source is temporarily suspended.
- Settled — The loan is fully repaid. These remain visible for reference but don’t affect wallet calculations.
Overdue loans don’t automatically penalise the child unless you’ve configured a late fee at the loan level. If you’re seeing a pattern of overdue status across multiple children, it’s worth reviewing whether repayment amounts are realistic relative to their allowance income — a habit that connects directly to why chores and earned income still matter in modern family life.
Comparing Before You Change Anything
The overview is intentionally read-only at the summary level. To edit a specific loan — adjusting the rate, pausing repayments, or logging a manual repayment — you’ll need to open the individual loan record. See how to view a child’s loan for a walkthrough of the detail view, or how to create a loan for a child if you’re setting up a new one.
Use the overview first to answer questions like:
- Which child is furthest behind on repayments?
- Are any loans approaching full settlement this month?
- Is one child carrying significantly more debt than their siblings?
This comparative view is especially useful if you’re running KiddyCash alongside chore-based earning structures, where a child’s repayment capacity is directly tied to task completion. The relationship between chores and financial decision-making is explored further in how chores connect to financial literacy for kids.
Filtering and Sorting
You can sort the overview table by any column header. Filter by status to isolate overdue loans across the family, or filter by child if you manage a large household. Filters persist within a session but reset on page reload — export to CSV if you need a snapshot for reference.