If when the books were set up, you said that it was a sole proprietor, then retained earnings is in fact the owner equity account. Net profit from last year is automatically posted to RE for you at the start of the new year.
I dislike how intuit did things for sole proprietors only.
You can post both investment and draws to the owner equity account, nothing wrong with that. Most folks though separate drawing and investment so that during the year you can see the totals for that year.
Then at the start of the new year, after all tax time adjustments are made, drawing and investment are moved to equity with journal entries, as in retained earnings.
But regardless of how you do it, equity should never go negative during the year but especially at the start of a new year.
I suggest for sole proprietors and partnerships the owner/partner equity accounts look like this:
[name] Equity (do not post to this account it is a summing account)
>> Equity ( first of the year roll up drawing and investment into this account as well as retained earnings)
>> Equity Drawing (record the value you take from the business here)
>> Equity Investment (record the value you put into the business here)
