Why Chart of Accounts for Credit Card (QB Balance) show positive value and Bank Balance negative? If I owe money, should the balance in QB also be negative value?

Hi there,

I appreciate you reaching out to the Community. I'll be happy to share information about the opening balances on your accounts. 

If this is the debt you owe to credit card provider, it'll show as a negative amount in the Chart of Accounts. First, it's important to note some of the reasons which affect the open balance: 

• Somebody changed the amount or account of a previously reconciled transaction.
• Somebody deleted a previously reconciled transaction.
• Somebody deleted or changed the amount or account of a transaction that was connected to a previously reconciled transaction.
• In the register, somebody unreconciled a previously reconciled transaction by changing the reconciliation status from reconciled (R) to cleared (C) or neither (blank).
• In the register, somebody reconciled a transaction by changing the reconciliation status to reconciled (R).
• The account's opening balance is incorrect.

If you need to enter the opening balance, here's how: 

1. Click the Create (+) menu, and select Journal Entry.

2. Debit the credit card account.

3. Credit the Opening Balance Equity account.

4. Click Save.

Give this a try and if you need further assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team using this link.

I am wondering why (In Chart of Accounts) I see (for Credit Card) a balance of 4237 under Quickbooks column and under Bank Balance column it shows -4234.  One shows positive and the other shows negative value.  Should they both be positive or negative? But since it is a liability, I would assume a positive number means I owe money, and if I had a negative number (as I do for GST Tax Payable) it means government owes me money...

Did you get an answer? I have the same issue. thanks. 

Hello laboheme,

Welcome to the QuickBooks Community and thanks for joining in on this thread. I read through to get a sense of what's been covered so far, and I'd be happy to go over how the QuickBooks Online bank feeds display credit card balances and whether they should match.

When you're using the banking feeds in QuickBooks Online, it's ideal that the QuickBooks Balance and Bank Balance are the same, meaning that they should both be either positive of negative. The program handles card balances by showing a positive number if there are charges to the card and a negative number if you've overpaid the balance on the card. For instance, if I have $100 of charges on my card, but make a credit card payment of $200, my balance will show as $-100.

Since you're seeing one positive and one negative number in the bank feed, it could mean that you haven't added all of the necessary transactions yet to make the numbers match. When the QuickBooks Balance and Bank Balance match, it means that you've taken care of all of the necessary transactions. If you have taken care of all of the transactions and you're still seeing this difference of positive versus negative, it could mean that the account wasn't set up correctly or that there's a glitch somewhere. I can walk you through how to check this out.

What I recommend doing is looking at the connected account in your chart of accounts. Doing this will show two things: that the feed is set up correctly and whether the numbers match there. Here's how to get there.

1. Select Accounting from the left menu.
2. Find the credit card account.
3. Make sure that both the Type and Detail Type columns show Credit Card.
4. Verify if the QuickBooks Balance and Bank Balance columns match.

If you're seeing Credit Card for both the Type and Detail Type columns, it means the card was set up correctly and QuickBooks will understand how to display the funds. If the QuickBooks Balance and Bank Balance columns in your chart of accounts both match and both show a positive or negative, that means it could be a display glitch on the bank feed.

I recommend connecting with our support team outside of the QuickBooks Community so that we can gather more details about your setup to get you back on track. A member of our support team will be able to help you make any corrections to your setup or address any errors the program may be having. There are a few ways to reach support, so choose whichever works best for you.

Schedule a Callback or start a Chat: click (?)Help in the upper right > type and enter "Contact support" into the QB Assistant > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Get a callback or Start a Chat.

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Don't hesitate to reach out! We're here to help. :)

Hi jschorn7

The chart of accounts in quickbooks displays values in the 'expected value'; that is if you have a liability like a credit card which typically has a credit balance the  value shows as positive.  It is in fact a credit if you look at the journal entry behind the scenes.  It's the same way it's shown on the Profit & Loss, and Balance Sheet; credit balance accounts - like revenues, liabilities, and owners equity - all show positive if they have a credit balance as that's whats expected to have happened.