Fix Retained Earning for Different Fiscal Year

@dbacc 

Under Accounts and Settings > Advanced > Accounting, did you also update the 'First month of income tax year' to be the 'Same as fiscal year'?  I recreated your issue and it worked for me - it booked the net income through 6-30-22 to RE on 7-1-22, with no entry to RE as of 1-1-22.

I can share some insights about Retained Earning concerns, dbacc.

Retained Earnings are the sum of net profit from previous years. When a new fiscal year starts, QuickBooks Online automatically adds the net income from the previous fiscal year to your Balance Sheet as Retained Earnings. Check this article to learn more about Retained earnings in QBO: How to view Retained Earnings account details.

You'll want to review your closing date and ensure the accounting method is correct when running the report.

Also, I recommend reaching out to your accountant, so they can provide additional options on how to adjust the amount. This way, you can ensure your books are accurate.

If there's anything you want to add, please post them in a comment below. I'll be right here to help you more.

OK this works as intended. The problem is, when you make changes (to the fiscal year-end, in this case), and hit Save, it says it saved your changes... even if the permissions aren't set up. So, I didn't realize it wasn't update the fiscal year. Once permissions were fixed and I upadte it again, Retained Earnings updated as expected.

Thanks!

Hello there, dbacc.

I'm glad that everything is already working fine. And that Retained Earnings were already updated. Anyway, if you do have any other concerns, you can always post your questions here so we can further assist you.

Please know that our priority is to address your concerns as quickly as possible. 

Remaining concerns regarding this issue are:

(1) Knowledgable users should be given better access, clarity and control over how Retained Earnings are handled. Within QBO, there's basically no information on how it works. I submitted feedback on this within QBO.

(2) When saving changes to account settings, it shoud alert you that changes were not saved iif you have insufficient permissions. Instead, it tells you they are saved, when in fact they are are not.

Hi there, @dbacc. 

Thanks for getting back on this thread. We value your feedback and product suggestions and I appreciate you sending some.

These requests and suggestions are forwarded directly to the Product Development Team for consideration in future updates. This will also help them know how this feature will make your QuickBooks experience smoother.

With regards to your account settings concern, for the changes to take effect, you'll need to click the Done button after you select save.

Check out this article to help you personalize QBO to whatever you want: Edit company settings in QuickBooks Online.

I'm also including our Help articles for related references in managing your account and transactions.

The Community always has your back, so please let me know if you have any other questions. I'll be more than happy to help. Keep safe. 

I am having a similar issue and called support to no avail.  The client set up QBO wrong with "same as fiscal year" but they are calendar for tax reporting.  I updated in settings, but even though I saved, the reports are still reporting with 3/31 year end...how can I get help on this?

I can see the urgency of keeping your client's financial data accurate, @rshires. 

Let's make sure your Report period sets for the Next Calendar Year or Last Fiscal Year date so your client's Retained Earnings account will show up in the Balance Sheet report in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

You're on the right track in updating your client's Accounting preferences on the Account and Settings page. However, modifying your fiscal year-end date won't change any data in your client's account. The effect is not retroactive, especially when viewing your previous years' data.

Thus, the update will affect report dates when generating new sets of reports or budgets. To check your client's net income as Retained Earnings, pull up a Balance Sheet report (from the Reports menu) and set the Report period for the Next Calendar Year or Last Fiscal Year. Please see the screenshot below for your reference.

You can read this article to learn more about the Retained Earnings account in QBO: How to review Retained Earnings account details.

Also, you may want to check out this article as your reference to guide you in closing your books to prevent unwanted changes before filing your taxes in QBO: Close your books in QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know if you have other concerns about the Retained Earnings account and keeping your client's data accurate in QBO. I'll gladly help. Take care, and I wish you continued success, @rshires. 

What permissions are you referring to? I am having this same issue. I am the only user for the company and retained earnings report does not contain any data.

Hey there, @thewireguyllc.

The permissions should not affect you, as you've mentioned you're the only user on the account. Being the only user on the account would make you the Master Admin user.  

However, I wanted to share what our champion users have advised for this same situation. 

While explaining, the champion users have advised, you'll want to open the Profit and Loss report for this fiscal year. You'll want to be sure to look at the Net Income at the bottom of the report. Then, you can run the Balance Sheet for the same Fiscal Year. That same Net Income is in Equity. Thus the Balance Sheet entry is explained in detail by referring to the Profit and Loss.

Once you've completed those steps, you can now change the Balance Sheet date to the first date of the new fiscal year, which equals one date later than the Profit and Loss. Then, you should see that the Net Income line is gone and that Retained Earnings are holding that value now.

I hope this information helps you out along the way. However, if you feel you need further guidance, you can always connect with our Customer Support Team. This way, one of our agents can review your account in a secure environment and investigate this matter further. 

I'm here if you have any additional questions. Take care!