Balance Sheet

Hello there, @DRichmond. 

I would be glad to assist you in understanding why a negative amount shows on your balance sheet and help you resolve the issue.

Negative cash assets can result from overdrawn bank accounts, accounting errors, financial performance issues, incorrect reporting, or the need for accounting cleanup. Consult your financial advisors to identify and address any negative cash balance-related issues.

To pinpoint the cause of this issue, find the negative transactions in your cash assets and click on the amount to see what makes up that sum. After identifying, take the necessary steps to rectify by following step 4 in this article: Fix a Balance Sheet that's out of balance.

Additionally, liabilities are a crucial component of a balance sheet, as they help maintain the fundamental accounting equation. To ensure that this always balances, it's shown as positive values in a balance sheet. If liabilities were shown as negative, it would disrupt the balance sheet equation and lead to a positive number, as a minus a negative equals a positive. However, there are instances when a payment may be represented as a negative value, such as when overpaying a vendor.

After solving your balance sheet issue, here's an article on how to get a copy outside the program: Export your reports to Excel from QuickBooks Online.

If you have more questions about your balance sheet, please feel free to ask in the comments below. I am always here to help.

@DRichmond 

RE: I recorded a deposit as a cash asset and a current liability. But the cash asset showed up as a negative number on the balance sheet and the payments are showing up as a positive number under the liabilities.

This is normal. If you create a deposit in your bank account, which will increase your bank account balance, and where your bank account is an asset, and then use another asset as the other account, that asset will decrease.

Consider that it's the same as transferring cash between two bank accounts, both of which are assets to you: If you deposit cash into one account from the other, transferring the cash, one account balance goes up and the other goes down.