Trying to get my opening balances posted. Have the banking and equity but how I can I post existing inventory. A journal entry requires an offset?

If you are going to use QB inventory items (QBO+ only) then you never use a journal transaction for inventory

If you are using QBO plus with inventory turned on, create the item with qty on hand (not on order) and cost per item on hand - will post that to the item and opening balance equity for you

Decide on a start date, and get a balance sheet on that date. Best is to use the beginning of the year, so you you don't have to enter any YTD income or expenses. That means you can run an accurate P&L for the year

Enter all the balance sheet account balances, not just bank and equity, but don't enter the inventory total because that will come from the sum of all the Items. Same for AR and AP; that comes from the sum of the customer/vendor balances.   For inventory use the new Item set up screen as Rustler described, or if you have a lot, you can upload an Excel file. The total cost value is calculated by multiplying the cost per unit by the quantity, for each item. 

The offset goes to Opening Balance Equity, for these inventory entries, and also when you set up the other balance sheets accounts using the new account set up screen and entering a balance.

When you are done the balance in OBE has to be zero. If it is not you have entered something incorrectly

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@Malcolm Ziman wrote:

When you are done the balance in OBE has to be zero. If it is not you have entered something incorrectly

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Ahh no.

You clear OBE to equity with a journal entry, then it is zero.

scenario new account no other opening balances

open bank account with 1,000 starting balance

what is OBE?

answer 1,000

with no other opening balances, you are saying that would be wrong?

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@Rustler wrote:

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open bank account with 1,000 starting balance

what is OBE?

answer 1,000

 

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OBE is not supposed to be used when you start a new business ; the opening bank deposit is simply a credit to equity.  You should not enter a balance in the set-up screen of the account.  Neither should it be used for a new account in an existing file .

OBE is meant to be used when you are setting up a new file for a pre-existing business. It is a clearing account during the set-up process. You enter the balance sheet account balances, except AP, AR and inventory, where you enter each component.  Because you use the balance sheet account balances, of course it all balances. That's why the balance must be zero

Well you can certainly hold to that opinion method.  People on the other hand don't know that you set out that method.

import a file with opening balances, the ONLY time OBE will be zero is if assets = liabilities

Because you have a personal druther on how to use it, does not mean it is widely held as  the only way.

but fact of the matter is OBE is an intuit created account, solely, I think, because neither the desktop nor the QBO programmers understood partnership equity sharing, so they just lumped it into one account to let you share it.

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@Rustler wrote:

 

Because you have a personal druther on how to use it, does not mean it is widely held as  the only way.

 

 

 

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It's not personal.  You obviously have not done the Pro-Advisor training

pro advisor?

Don't make me laugh, there are good ones, and there are the rest

here read some quotes from those who are trained

http://onsale-apparel.com/Rustler/certifications

You really think intuit writes a bible for you to follow?

In the Pro-Advisor training they explain what OBE is for, which I see you don't understand

and once again you have drifted off the topic, really malcolm stay on point

you said, OBE should be zero after opening balances are entered - patently false

with the odd exception where assets = liabilities

You can do the training if you want so you can learn how it works.