Thanks, Jy..
I tried a work-around - I added a sales receipt in A/R and received the full amount, now it is included in my sales totals without messing up the beginning balance.
I do remember QB creating an opening balance (OB) automatically as you mention, and I think I did what you suggested, but then I had to re-add the equity (for some reason I can't quite remember).
All of the rest of my sales are just categorized into the sales account and labeled as deposits, this seems to work just fine. It's that one tricky all-important OB entry that was a bit confusing.
Thanks for your reply!
SA25