Which accounts specifically have to have year end adjustments in QBDT?

QuickBooks doesn't make any accounting adjustments at year end. Rumors that it does are a misunderstanding.

The misunderstanding is likely based on reports, such as - for example - the Balance Sheet. As with other accounting systems, the Balance Sheet includes line items for Retained Earnings and Current Earnings.If you run balance sheets for different dates, you'll see those numbers change. However, they don't change because by adding actual adjustments to the company file. Instead, these line items are automatically calculated at report time based on all of the transactions in the company file, similar to the account balances on the balance sheet.

Retaining Earnings = Net earnings for years prior to the current year, based on the report date.

Current Earnings = Net earnings in the current year, based on and up to the report date.

BigRed,   my Retained Earnings account is missing?  I came across an answer from you from 2020, I believe...

"Assuming you are a sole proprietor or a partnership, each year you should use a journal entry to move RE to owner equity.

debit RE and credit owner equity"

I believe my RE account is actually my Owner's Equity Acct. I run the reports to show new balances, etc and NO Retained Earnings at all.   

Should I then just leave the OE balance at year end?

RE: I believe my RE account is actually my Owner's Equity Acct.

To determine if this is the case, try double-clicking the account from the chart of accounts.  If you get a register, it is not the Retained Earnings account. If a report runs, it is. Also the Retained Earnings account will not have a balance displayed on the chart of accounts.

If you have conflated the two accounts, the fix (should you decide you want to undo this) is to created a new Equity account for your Owner's Equity and then edit all of the transactions that use the Retained Earnings account and change the account to the new Owner's Equity account.

Hi BigRed,

The screenshot attached is the report when I double click the OE account in my COA, so looks like they are one and the same....

It sounds complicated to undo that merge. Is there any harm in leaving it this way at least until I get my 2023 taxes done?

I was just having trouble finding the 2022 adjusting year end entries.  Now that I've found them, I can reset my closing date to 12/31/2023, and move on.

What is your opinion, please?

Yes, I've spent so much time chasing my tail trying to be sure the year end items are done correctly that I just need to move on.  I can and probably will go back once I'm caught up again, and fix that issue.

I have printed this conversation so I can refer back to it.

Thanks, again.