I'm a new church treasurer. With new accounting software... We have a long term loan that's confusing me in the set up. This is not a new loan. How do I set up the balance due and what would the journal entries be. To use round numbers, we have a loan balance of 30,000. Originally it was $100,000 . Each month $1000 is paid of which $800 is principal and $200 is interest.
If I set up that 30K balance in a Note Payable liability account with a credit of $30,000 what other account needs to be created or where would I debit to? We already received the loan to use for building repair and paid it out a few years ago so I can't see debiting Cash. Someone suggested I debit a Retained Earnings account of $30,000 as the other side of a journal entry.

If I do that, then how would I complete a journal entry because I'm thinking a regular monthly payment would be CR Cash $1000, DR $800 Note payable, DR $200 Interest expense. But that leaves that Retained Earning account hanging there. I'm new at church treasurer with an added burden of setting up new church accounting software and I realize I need to pull out my college Accounting 101 books for a refresher, but hopefully someon can help clear my thinking. Thanks