My Net Income on my balance sheet does not equal my Net Income on my P&L.

A warm welcome to the Community space, @ECorona1621. Let me clarify why your balance sheet and profit and loss net income aren't equal.

The Balance sheet report is a financial report that outlines your company's assets, liabilities, and equity for a particular period. A balance sheet will show you what your company owes and owns for that specific time frame. 

Meanwhile, the Profit and Loss report or income statement is a financial report that summarizes the income, costs, and expenses you experienced during that period. Business owners use this report to analyze the financial health of their companies. 

The net income in the balance sheet and profit and loss statement may not match due to timing differences, such as when revenue and expenses are recognized. To isolate the issue, you'll want to ensure that both reports are run on the same date and using the same accounting method. Furthermore, you can click on the amount of the income categories/accounts to determine which entry is causing the difference or mismatch.

For more guidance on customizing your report, you can check out this article: Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

Don't hesitate to leave a comment below if you have further questions regarding both reports in QBDT. We're always all ears for your query. 

@ECorona1621 

The Net Income line item on your Balance Sheet should be the same as your P&L Net Income when the P&L and balance sheet are both run with the date range This Fiscal Year-to-date (or when using a different balance sheet date than today, when the P&L date range starts on the first day of the Fiscal Year and ends on the same date as the balance sheet).

This is true when the reports are both run on the same basis, either cash or accrual. And it also should be true even when you get that message about the balance sheet being out of balance (which is Intuit punting because they didn't want to do the work to make the balance sheet balance...)

From your description, it seems like you might be running the P&L for a different date range. Is that possible?

@SheandL  RE: Let me clarify why your balance sheet and profit and loss net income aren't equal.... these reports won't be equal mainly because they work and serve differently.

The reports are, of course, not the same reports. The OP didn't suggest they are, and also didn't ask what they are for.

However, the Net income on the Balance sheet absolutely should match the Net income on the P&L when the P&L is run on the 'same' date range, such as "This Fiscal Year to date"  - or any date range that starts at the beginning of the Fiscal Year and ends on the Balance Sheet date. Always. Exactly. That is how a balance sheet works, a fact which you should know.

Thank you for your help.  I know how the balance sheet works and once I rebuilt the company file. Everything

balanced running the fiscal year to date range.  Thank you for your help.

Erin

I am having the same issue.  I did the data rebuild and my reports were still off.  You said you got yours to work after data rebuild. How many times did you have to rebuild?

For net income on the balance sheet to be the same as the P&L:

- The P&L must be run from the beginning date of the fiscal year of the Balance sheet to the date of the Balance Sheet. Both could be run with the date range, "This Fiscal Year-to-Date", for example.

- Both the P&L and the Balance Sheet must be on the same 'basis' - cash or accrual.

If you try that, then does it work as expected?