Langara Woodcraft borrowed money to purchase equipment. The loan is repaid by making payments of $969.94attheendofeverythreemonthsoverfiveyears.Ifinterestis6.8Theoriginalloanbalancewas$
(Round the final answer to the nearest cent as needed. Round all intermediate values to six decimal places as needed.)

Step 1 ：This problem involves calculating the present value of an annuity due. The formula for the present value of an annuity due is: $PV=PMT\times [(1-(1+r/n{)}^{nt})/(r/n)]\times (1+r/n)$, where:

Step 2 ：$PV$ is the present value (the original loan balance we're trying to find)

Step 3 ：$PMT$ is the payment amount per period ($969.94)

Step 4 ：$r$ is the annual interest rate (6.8% or 0.068)

Step 5 ：$n$ is the number of compounding periods per year (4, since payments are made quarterly)

Step 6 ：$t$ is the number of years (5)

Step 7 ：We can plug in the given values into this formula to find the original loan balance.

Step 8 ：Let's calculate: $PMT=969.94$, $r=0.068$, $n=4$, $t=5$

Step 9 ：Substitute these values into the formula, we get $PV=16606.402574753323$

Step 10 ：Rounding to the nearest cent, the original loan balance was $\boxed{{\displaystyle 16606.40}}$