Question

Reclass of Owner Investments to Retained Earnings at year end is double counting

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
January 27, 2024
2 replies
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My accountant recommended that I make a journal entry to reclass the balance in “Owner Investments/Draws” to “Retained Earnings” on January 1 of each year,. She made those entries for the previous two years. I did one for 1/1/2024, however, instead of zeroing out my balance sheet like when she did it, the balance sheet is double counting. What am I doing wrong? From what I can tell, the journal entry looks exactly the same as her entries but maybe I'm missing a step or two. All I did was take the amount of the transactions with the class Owner Investments/Draws, total and enter in the journal entry.

In the journal entry, I have two rows. #1 is Owner Investments/Draws. For this example, let's say it has $10 in the debits column. Row #2 is Retained earnings and I put $10 in the Credits column. Balance sheet has -$20 in balance column for this journal entry.

Please help!

Thanks

QuickBooks Online

S

SarahannC

Hello iamchrisfinley, I see the importance of correcting the journal entry you made.

There might be an error in the entry or a missing step. Since this involves accounting and financial statements, it's important to ensure accuracy. I suggest contacting your accountant to review the journal entry you made and to assist in identifying any discrepancies. They can help you rectify the entry and ensure that your balance sheet reflects the appropriate adjustments.

For additional details about recording journal entries in QuickBooks Online, you can check these articles:

Please let me know if you have more questions with your transactions and other concerns related to QuickBooks. I'll be glad to help you out again.

Rainflurry

@Chris_Accounting_2023

Your journal entry (JE) is reversed. To close Owner's Draws to Retained Earnings (R/E), debit R/E and credit Owner's Draw. Also, date the entry 12-31-23, not 1-1-24.

C

Chris_Accounting_2023Author

Thanks @Rainflurry. I tried uploading three attachments (2022 example my accountant did, 2023 and the balance sheet) but upload limit is one. The 2022 one is attached. Do you know why it would have balanced out previously?

Rainflurry

@Chris_Accounting_2023

"Do you know why it would have balanced out previously?"

It looks like your equity account is Owner Investment/Draws, not just Owner's Draws as I mistakenly referenced in my previous post. In that case (because the equity account is a combined investment/draw account), the reason the attached JE balanced is because there was a credit balance at the end of 2022 - you invested more into the business in 2022 than you took out. Whereas, you must have had a debit balance in your Owner Investment/Draw account at the end of 2023.

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