QB Desktop VS QB Online - General Ledger Reporting - Revenue/Liability signs opposite

Thanks for coming here, Evan03.

I appreciate you for sharing a screenshot to help me better understand your concern.

When you run the reports, make sure the date is set to All Dates in both products QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online) and your accounting method is set to Accrual. Reports from the two products will not match if you use the Cash basis option. This is because QBDT and QBO has a different away of considering transactions as paid.

1. From QuickBooks Online, navigate to the Reports tab. 
2. Search for Ledger, and select General Ledger report from the pane below.
3. Under Report period at the top, select All Dates.
4. Choose Accrual as your Accounting method.
5. Click Run report.

This article provides the things you need to do after converting from QuickBooks Desktop for Windows or Mac to QuickBooks Onli.... You can scroll down to Verify and compare your financial reports section for more information.

If you continue to see opposite signs for your General Ledger's revenue/liability, we can try performing some basic browser troubleshooting.

When ran for an extensive date range, the reports will often crash due to an overload of information resulting QuickBooks to handle more data to your browser than it can handle. Your report issues could be a result of this.

First of is to use a private browser when logging in to your QBO account. Since this type of window doesn't store cache, it's a good place to start he troubleshooting.

You can refer to the following keyboard shortcuts below:

• Google Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + N
• Microsoft Edge: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Safari: Command + Shift + N

If it works, let's clear the cache of your browser to ensure optimal performance. Otherwise, you can try other supported browser to help narrow down the cause of this behavior.

Also, you can read through these articles to learn more about the things you should know when converting your company file from QBDT to QBO:

• What to expect when you switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.
• Moving your QuickBooks Desktop file to QuickBooks Online.
• FAQs about converting from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online

Get back to me if you have other questions. I'm always happy to help you further. Keep safe and have a great rest of the day!

Thanks for the response however, I tried all of you recommended solutions and nothing worked. Still the same issue. Tried 2 different computers as well and it's the same.

I appreciate the steps you've performed, Evan03.

The recommended solutions above are sure to fix the issue. Since it persists, I would recommend giving us a call. This way, we can check what's causing this and troubleshoot the issue for you.

To get our contact number:

1. Go to the Help icon at the upper right corner.
2. click Contact Us.

Also, consider checking out the following links shared by my colleague above about the things you need to know when migrating data between QuickBooks:

• FAQs about converting from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online
• What to expect when you switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online

Please keep me posted on how the call goes. I want to make sure everything is taken care of for you.

Hi @Evan03 -

I see what you are saying, know what you mean and agree not likely to change based on system setting.

I work with multiple accounting systems, including QBO and QBDT.  Can't say I recall comparing side by side, but have no doubt since I have seen elsewhere.   I'm 99% sure that is in the core setup and trends.

As you have likely seen, external financial statements (balance sheet, income statement) published and presented to outsiders, have always shown 'correct balance' as positive numbers even if credit balance. However, the detailed reports and transaction input screens vary for example debit vs. credit columns.

P&L (income statement) you will always see showing revenue AND expenses as positive numbers even when you know that can't possibly be correct mathematically. You just have to know that expenses are subtracted from revenue, and most readers like you know, but is definitely confusing to other people.

Same for liabilities on balance sheet, you will always see as positive numbers, just in different sections. Since most people know Assets are listed first and know some account names, like Cash at top is easy, they are able to infer what is what, only IF they first have some understanding of what to expect to see.

However, when it comes to the detailed transactions, like General Ledger or Transaction Detail where

you need to see debits vs. credits to make entries or review reports for accuracy is what matters most.

I think these should show debits and credits correctly, where debits are positive and credits negative.

There seems to be a trend away from that logic of following standard accounting, which seems rude,

but hate to say you may not get QB to change back at this point since it was just changed recently.

On your first example, I do not like the positive liabilities nor the numbers with minus signs displayed.

I prefer to see (in detail) revenue and liabilities as credit balance accounts with brackets around them.

The general ledger is an accounting report that should show the actual accounting debits and credits.

How can I change the general ledger to conform to the correct accounting signs.

This could be the reason for not getting the online version.

Changing the general ledger accounting signs is a great functionality, 

Virginiaauditor.

As of now, this option is unavailable in QuickBooks Online. I'd recommend sending a feedback request directly to our Product Development team. This helps us improve the feature of the program. 

Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear menu and then select Feedback.
2. Type in your feature request in the description box.
3. Once done, click on Next.

 You can track feature requests through the Customer Feedback for QuickBooks Online website.

Additionally, I've added these articles that'll help you learn more about running and customizing reports in QuickBooks Online:

• Run Reports in QuickBooks Online
• Customize Reports in QuickBooks Online

I'm only a few clicks away if you need assistance running and personalizing reports in QuickBooks. We're always here to help you out.