Loans

Hello, TN21.

I'll share some information about your situation. 

The Long-term Liability is part of the accounts on your Balance Sheet. Therefore, the opening balance is automatically set as negative. You can enter the full loan amount as a positive number. Each time you want to make a payment towards the loan, you can record it against this account.

I've got a sample screenshot below that shows the difference between a negative and positive opening balance for the long term liability account:

if you need to edit your opening balance, you can follow the steps below. Before doing so, please reach out to your accountant for advice. If you don't have an accountant, we can help you find one:

Here's how you can edit the opening balance:

1. Go to List > Chart of Accounts.
2. Right-click on the long term liability account and choose Edit Account.
3. In the Edit Account window, click the Change Opening Balance button.
4. Select Save and Close.

Please see this sample screenshot for a visual reference:

Please note that what you enter for the opening balance depends on how you want to handle your past transactions. 

You can read this article for more information: Enter opening balances for accounts in QuickBooks Desktop.

I'll be around if you have any follow-up questions or other concerns. Take care and stay safe!

When I hit edit account (I'm using Mac PC quickbooks not the online version) I'm not given the choice to 

change opening balance.  I attached a picture below of the edit screen 

Hello, TN21. 

Thank you for getting back to us. It could be your data file may be damaged or corrupted. To start off, let's update your QuickBooks to the latest release. This will help you download the changes, improvements, and fixes that were made to QuickBooks. Here's how: 

1. From the QuickBooks dropdown, select Check for QuickBooks Updates.
2. If a newer version is available, tap Install Update.
3. When prompted, select Install and Relaunch.
4. When the update is complete, QuickBooks for Mac automatically opens.

For your reference, you may visit this article: Update QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release.  

Next, let's run the Verify and Rebuild utility. This tool will fix any errors it can find and notify you of anything that needs to be manually corrected​. You can also check out this article for detailed steps: Fix data damage on your QuickBooks Desktop company file. 

If the same thing happens, you can reach out to our technical support team. They have the tools to assess your account in a secure environment and get on a screen share with you while performing troubleshooting steps to see what's causing this behavior. You can use this link to contact our support team. 

Please let me know if this helps you modifying your account. I'll be around if you have any additional questions. Take care and stay safe.