Question

Editing Opening Balance Equity

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
January 20, 2021
1 reply
0 views

I mistakenly recorded the opening balance of a credit card account as the type "Credit Card Expense". It should have been recorded as Opening Balance Equity. But when I go to the register to edit it the system won't let me edit the type. How can I fix this?

QuickBooks Online

JasroV

I got you covered, @DebHC.

Changing the detail type of an account to “Opening Balance Equity” or change an “Opening Balance Equity” to another detail type is not possible.

As a workaround, we can delete/make inactive your Credit Card Expense type in your chart of accounts and create a new one. Ensure to select Opening Balance Equity as the detail type of the account to avoid any errors. Let me show you how.

Before we proceed, I recommend working with your accountant for additional guidance in deleting your account. This way, we can ensure your accounts are well accounted for after making these changes. If you're not affiliated with one, you can visit our ProAdvisor page and we'll help you find one from there.

When ready, you can now start by following these steps:

Go to the Gear icon.
Select Chart of Accounts.
Find the account you want to delete.
Select the Action drop-down and select Make inactive.

You can also check this article for more details: Delete an account on your chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online.

Once done, you can now create your Opening Balance Equity account. When everything is all set, you might want to check these articles that can guide you in your future tasks:

I’ll be around to help you whenever you have other queries. Just leave a reply in this thread and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Have a great day and keep safe.

D

DebHCAuthor

Thank you for your reply. Before I got your message I did some things and wonder if they are a viable alternative. I deleted the transaction from my chart of accounts register for Opening Balance Equity. I then created a new transaction as a journal entry and chose the account "Opening Balance Equity." In creating the new transaction I used the + New option which requires me to pick one of a number of types, such as expense, deposit, credit card credit, credit card expense, journal entry, etc. Does the way I did it make sense?

KlentB

Thanks for keeping us updated, DebHC.

Deleting the mistakenly recorded entry and reentering the correct one would also do the trick. Great job on that.

To fully complete the process, you'll have to manually mark the journal entry as reconciled so it will serve as an opening balance during reconciliation. This balance is the starting point for the account. It summarises all the past transactions in your bank account up to the opening balance date. Here's how to do it:

Select Accounting from the sidebar menu.
Go to Chart of Accounts.
Find the account holding the transaction, then click View register.
Click the journal entry to expand the view.
From the Checkmark column, keep clicking the checkbox until the box you see R. This will mark the entry as reconciled.
Select Save, then close the account register.

To learn more about how opening balance works, you read this guide: Enter an opening balance for an account. I've also included an article that will help you keep your accounts balanced and up-to-date:

Do let me know if you need more help in accomplishing your other tasks by leaving a comment below. I'll always have your back.

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