opening balance equity

Janet1981 · ‎August 12, 2020

Hello! I know this question was already raised before in community but i couldn't match those with my concern. I have connected both CC and Corp BofA accounts last month to qbo, there was automatic entry created hitting opening balance equity account, I have deleted it manually by going to register, clicking on edit and then delete. This month when I tried my 1st reconciliation I see that qbo created another opening balance equity entry for the total amount of CC expenses for 2 months with the current month date. Attached is screenshot for the same. How can I correct/remove opening balance equity from the books? Do I have to go to register again and instead of deleting change amount to zero and date to the 1st date i linked account to qbo? Appreciate help from QBO community!

Rea_M · ‎August 12, 2020

Let me share details about handling the Opening Balance Equity account in QuickBooks Online (QBO), @Janet1981. This way, you'll be able to determine the best thing to do about it in keeping your account updated.

Once Opening Balance Equity is deleted after connecting your credit card and BofA accounts, QBO won't create another entry for it. This may be because you've entered a deposit transaction and at the same time unknowingly added one when creating the account. To check this, let's visit the Audit Log page. This way, you'll be able to verify all the transactions and keep track of your activities. Here's how:

Go to the Gear icon.
Select the Audit log.
From the Filter drop-down menu, select the appropriate user, date, and event(s).
Click Apply.
Check all activities, then select the View hyperlink to take a closer look.

In case you've found out either you've entered a deposit transaction or added the opening balance entry when creating the account, you'll have to go back to the register and perform the deletion process again. This time, I assure you that the Opening Balance Equity account will be removed.

Additionally, every time you QuickBooks downloads your credit card and BofA transactions, all you have to do is categorize them. For the detailed steps, you can refer to this article: Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

After that, I'd recommend reconciling your account every month. This is to detect errors and monitor the growth of your business. For the step-by-step guide, kindly check out this article's QuickBooks Online section: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks. It also contains instructions about fixing a reconciliation and editing completed one.

Please let me know if you have other concerns. I'm just around to help. Take care always.

View solution in original post

Rea_M · ‎August 12, 2020

Let me share details about handling the Opening Balance Equity account in QuickBooks Online (QBO), @Janet1981. This way, you'll be able to determine the best thing to do about it in keeping your account updated.

Once Opening Balance Equity is deleted after connecting your credit card and BofA accounts, QBO won't create another entry for it. This may be because you've entered a deposit transaction and at the same time unknowingly added one when creating the account. To check this, let's visit the Audit Log page. This way, you'll be able to verify all the transactions and keep track of your activities. Here's how:

Go to the Gear icon.
Select the Audit log.
From the Filter drop-down menu, select the appropriate user, date, and event(s).
Click Apply.
Check all activities, then select the View hyperlink to take a closer look.

In case you've found out either you've entered a deposit transaction or added the opening balance entry when creating the account, you'll have to go back to the register and perform the deletion process again. This time, I assure you that the Opening Balance Equity account will be removed.

Additionally, every time you QuickBooks downloads your credit card and BofA transactions, all you have to do is categorize them. For the detailed steps, you can refer to this article: Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

After that, I'd recommend reconciling your account every month. This is to detect errors and monitor the growth of your business. For the step-by-step guide, kindly check out this article's QuickBooks Online section: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks. It also contains instructions about fixing a reconciliation and editing completed one.

Please let me know if you have other concerns. I'm just around to help. Take care always.

Rustler · ‎August 12, 2020

@Janet1981

Equity is the answer to the math formula, total assets less total liabilities, it is automatically calculated with every transaction.

Opening balance equity is an account QB invented. The only time it gets an entry is when you create an account with a balance. And that is proper. After all opening balance accounts are created you need to move OBE to owner equity with a journal entry.

Debit OBE for the balance and credit owner equity.

For a company taxed as a sole proprietor (schedule C) or partnership (form 1065), I recommend you have the following for owner/partner equity accounts (one set for each partner if a partnership)

[name] Equity (do not post to this account it is a summing account)
>> Equity
>> Equity Drawing - you record value you take from the business here
>> Equity Investment - record value you put into the business here

Janet1981 · ‎August 12, 2020

@Rustler thanks for your input, but in my case, OBE account was created once i connected credit card to qbo. For every credit card BofA creates Corp account, basically, there are 2 accounts: CORP account as parent and credit card sub-account. Each has its own feeds: CORP is used for cc payments and finance charges and CC sub has purchases. So I assume that qbo duplicated the balance from cc sub and created the same balance in CORP with corresponding account of OBE.

Monn88 · ‎December 22, 2020

Hey, It happened the same to me. I deleted the Opening balance Equity balance from the register but I don't see any downloaded transactions. Why? I linked my CC account following the step by step from QBO but I don't see any transactions downloaded.

Angelyn_T · ‎December 22, 2020

Thank you for joining the thread, @Monn88.

I can help you with downloading your transactions to QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Once your bank or credit card account is connected to QuickBooks, the system automatically downloads your bank transactions. If they're not showing up or added on the Banking page, then you may need to do a manual update to refresh their connection.

Here's how:

Open your QBO account, then click on Banking or Transactions at the left pane.
Go to the Banking tab.
Tap on Update.
If you see a message about additional authentication, follow the onscreen steps to continue the update.

For additional tips about fixing bank transactions that are not downloaded to QuickBooks, you can check out this link: What to do if you get a bank error or can't download transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Once the bank transactions are now downloaded into QBO successfully, here's how you can review and categorize them.

If you have other banking questions, please feel free to click the Reply button and add a comment below. I'll be right here to provide additional assistance. Wishing you and your business all the best!

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