Balance sheet error on shareholder distributions

Welcome to the Community, tu3712. I appreciate your detailed information.

To verify my understanding, did you select the Run report button after setting your Report period to This Year-to-date? If not, this may be why it's still displaying data from other years outside of your desired date range.
 

In the event your balance sheet report is configured properly with a Report period of This Year-to-date, but is showing shareholder distributions from other years that weren't specified in your Report period, I'd recommend checking the browser you're using. It's possible this could have something to do with temporary internet files. Browsing applications store these types of records, but sometimes they can cause issues with certain webpages. You can open a private window and check to see if your report displays correctly according to its Date range.
 

Here's how to access incognito mode in some of the most commonly used web browsers:

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If your balance sheet displays correctly while browsing privately, it's safe to say this problem's being caused by your browser. It can be fixed by clearing cached data and Intuit-specific cookies.
 

In the event it continues not displaying properly while browsing in incognito mode, you'll initially want to try switching to another browsing application.
 

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In the event you've found no problems that could be causing this with your browser, you'll want to check the operating system and internet speed you're working with.
 

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I've also included a detailed resource about system requirements for QuickBooks which may come in handy moving forward: System requirements
 

Please don't hesitate to send a reply if there's any questions. Have an awesome Friday!

@tu3712 

There is no such thing as a YTD balance sheet.  QB Online should not even have that as an option - it's a poor design.  A balance sheet that is run YTD in QB Online is a balance sheet that represents the financial position of the company from day 1 of the business's existence until the day you run the report.  You will notice it says on the top of the report "Balance Sheet - As of October 27, 2023.  If your business started Jan. 1, 2018, the "YTD" balance sheet is for all dates from Jan. 1, 2018 through Oct. 27, 2023.  That is why your balance sheet shows distributions dating back to 2018.  Intuit should fix that.      

@tu3712 

EDIT: 

A balance sheet that is run YTD in QB Online is a balance sheet that represents the financial position of the company as of the day the report is run.  To do that, it includes all transactions from day 1 of the business's existence until the day you run the report.

Thank you. I tired this yesterday for over an hour. They escalated it and are looking at my issue. This happens across different PCs and users so it’s not isolated to just me or my PC. Thank you for the input. 

Thank you. I was wondering that was the case and searched for that reasoning but I couldn’t find anywhere that is was a running total of the business since inception. I have asked a few others and they all said it should only return the distributions for the date range selected. 

@tu3712 

There's nothing to fix.  It's just how QB Online is designed.  I meant they should fix the option of choosing a date range when running a balance sheet.  It creates issues like this, where people assume a balance sheet can be run for a date range - it can't.  It is a snapshot of the business as of a certain date.  

"I have asked a few others and they all said it should only return the distributions for the date range selected."

Then they are not formally trained accountants or CPAs.  You can (and should) close out distributions to retained earnings at year-end.  Debit retained earnings, credit distributions  

Thank you for the info