Last Updated on March 14, 2022
QuickBooks Retained Earnings account is a special type of account that saves the prior years’ profit or loss automatically when a balance sheet is created. During the new fiscal year, QB Online will transfer the net income from the previous fiscal year to your balance sheet as retained earnings. The net income gets calculated once after the invoices have gone out, and the bills have been paid. Once the transfer is done, the company’s balance gets zero for the new fiscal year, and then users can track the business growth. Our blog is centered on discussing QuickBooks retained earnings and how they are manually managed by users.
The terms are quite technical, we agree on that. Hence, a newbie may find quite a lot of confusion finding answers to what is retained earnings in QuickBooks? For professional help to know about QuickBooks Retained Earnings dial 1.855.738.2784
View the Profit and Loss Detail Report
The Profit and Loss Detail Report displays the transactions that collectively make up the net profit or loss that were transfer to the retained earnings account in QB.
- Open Reports.
- Search and click on the Profit and Loss report.
- Choose All Dates from Report period drop-down.
- Hit on Run Report.
- Choose Net Income amount, which will open the Profit and Loss Detail report for All Dates.
View the Profit and Loss Report Categorized by Year
When the Profit and Loss report is categorized by year, tracking of retained earnings account over the period of time becomes easy.
- Navigate to Reports.
- Locate and click on the Profit and Loss report.
- On seeing Profit and Loss report, hit on Customize.
- Customize Report panel opens up and choose the Rows/Columns item to open the section.
- Select Years through Columns.
- Finally, click on Run Report.
View Retained Earnings Account in QuickBooks
With the steps below, you can view retained earnings account in QuickBooks in the Balance Sheet:
- Click on Reports.
- Search and then choose Balance Sheet to view QuickBooks Retained Earnings.
- When the report opens, locate the Retained Earnings item to view the company’s reported net income.
Note: In the Retained Earnings account, the amount can be distributed at the end of your fiscal year using a journal entry. The column of Debit will be reduced while the Credit will increase your Retained Earnings account.
Review the Quick Report of Retained Earnings Account
Users can see the transactions created manually on the retained earnings account in the chart of accounts Quick Report.
- Open Settings and move to the Chart of Accounts.
- Look for the Retained Earning account in the chart of accounts.
- Click on Run Report from the Action column drop-down menu.
- In the Report period drop-down list, click All Dates.
- Finally hit on Run Report.
This report will be able to show you the user-created transactions affecting the digits on the Retained Earnings account in the chart of accounts.
QuickBooks Retained Earnings account, as we mentioned earlier, is a special account, and the user must be aware of the backend operations regarding the same. Moreover, our blog focuses on what actions can be performed after you know what is included in retained earnings? In case of any confusion, contact the accounting team at 1.855.738.2784.
Edward Martin is a Technical Content Writer for our leading Accounting firm. He has over 10 years of experience in QuickBooks and Xero. He has also worked with Sage, FreshBooks, and many other software platforms. Edward’s passion for clarity, accuracy, and innovation is evident in his writing. He is well versed in how to simplify complex technical concepts and turn them into easy-to-understand content for our readers.