I can't find Equity Account in Chart of Accounts. Can you help me set this up?

Regards

Daniel 

I would appreciate step by step instructions. I have got into the Account type- Equity then Detail Type - Owner's Equity - Description - yearly dividends NOW should this be a sub-account of something???

Also I failed to do this for 2018 so should I just put the total of 2018 & 2019 in the Balance area?

I'm reading through this thread because I wanted to make sure that our QB Desktop was set up properly in 2013.  After reading through here, I found out that the Dividends Payable account was set up as an Other Liability - not an Equity account.  That explains why every time I get the adjusting entries back from the accountant, there's an entry moving the dividends to Retained Earnings which is an Equity account.  Is it possible to change the Dividends Payable account from an Other Liability and make it an Equity account?  Or will that screw up all those years of entries?  How can I correct this going forward or should I just leave it as is?

Hello Diane18,

Happy Wednesday! I hope things have gone well for you so far this week, and I'm glad this thread has helped clarify why your accountant has been making the changes they have in your books. I can appreciate now wanting to change the type of account your dividends are allocated to so that your accountant doesn't need to make these kinds of corrections, and I can help shed some light on this.

I've just done some testing and see that from a QuickBooks Desktop perspective, you can change the type of account from an other liability account to an equity account, even if you already have transactions in it. For the transactions, everything should still be the same since you're simply changing the type of account.

Before you do that, though, I strongly recommend speaking with your accountant since they've already been reallocating funds to another equity account. It may be best to even simply begin using the equity account your accountant has set up or been using moving forward, but they'll be able to best advise you so that you avoid any negative impacts to your books. Having that discussion is key in this case, so don't hesitate to reach out to them to go over this.

I hope this helps! Have a great rest of your day.

I am having the same issue. I have called QuickBooks customer care and couldn't get a clear answer either.

following

Hello, 

Going back to this, I followed the instructions you provided but when running a balance sheet report and click under the "Total Equity category" the amount inputted under the "Dividends Paid out" category shows up under the beginning balance. Is this normal?

Hello JPRTAX. Thanks for reaching out on this thread. While the amounts under the Total Equity category and the Dividends Paid out have a relationship, it's important to click under each of the category to double-check transactions that make up the totals of each of the category. Doing this helps bring your finances into perspective. You're welcome to ask other questions. I'll be a message away.