Question

Why does shareholder distribution not reduce retained earning in QuickBooks for my S corp?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
January 17, 2019
3 replies
48 views

Hi, I am a 100% shareholder of my s corp and I have been using QB to do the bookkeeping for the entire history of the company. My s corp finally made a profit and I have enough basis to distribute the profit out to myself. My understanding is that the profit can be retained in the company as "retained earnings," distributed out to shareholders as "distributions," or a combination of both. Therefore, a shareholder distribution should reduce retained earnings while keeping the profit for the year the same. This is not the case for my QuickBooks (2016 desktop version)... Regardless of how I change the shareholder distribution entry, "retained earnings" (a close entry) remains the same no matter how many times I refresh the report, as if QB is using the term "retained earnings" as "profits." Am I setting my QB correctly? Do you have the same problem? What should I do to make retained earnings adjust to shareholder distributions? Or is QB just calling profit "retained earnings?" If this is the case, how do I show in QB retained earnings in the sense of profit that is not distributed? Thanks!

QuickBooks Desktop

Rustler

Level 15

Let's start from scratch, bring up the entry you made and delete it or void it if it was a check

use write checks, on the expense tab select retained earnings, and enter the amount, save

Open the chart of accounts and double click on the retained earnings account, the last entry should be a negative amount, same amount you entered on the check

if that is true, then everything is fine. If not what did it show?

s-corps have a requirement to use payroll for working shareholders before any distributions are made. I am not sure how that would apply if the corp is not making enough revenue to support the added costs of payroll. You need to consult with a tax accountant to find out what you need to do in this respect

qbteachmt

Level 11

Here is where you are confused: " Regardless of how I change the shareholder distribution entry, "retained earnings" (a close entry) remains the same no matter how many times I refresh the report"

You are looking for this in the Wrong Place.

"My s corp finally made a profit"

You need to run Three reports: Reports menu > Company & Financial. Run on Accrual Basis, for Last Fiscal Year:

Balance Sheet Standard

P&L Standard

Statement of Cash Flows (no basis setting here)

They all show the same Net Income; that's how you know they relate. That Net Income is rolled into Equity automatically as of Jan 1 or the first date of your new fiscal year, so that income and expense start over at 0. This is the "Closing entry" that simply is the Math from Net Income that one day previous.

Your Distribution should be either taken from an Equity account you named Distribution to track it, or from RE when you issue the check to yourself.

"Therefore, a shareholder distribution should reduce retained earnings"

You control the Account you post it against. There is going to be a Warning pop up regarding posting to RE, but that is a Yellow Triangle. Keep going.

"while keeping the profit for the year the same."

Now it is time to run another copy of Balance Sheet, as of Jan 1, 2019 (of the first date of your new fiscal year). Customize, top left. Checkmark to include Prior Period.

As long as you have no Income or Expense activity dated Jan 1, you see that Net Income is 0 for the First date of the new year, and you see the Net Income from the prior date is rolled into RE for you.

And double-click RE from the Chart of accounts, make sure to set the date to All, and your distribution check should be listed here.

Please see my attachment.

"as if QB is using the term "retained earnings" as "profits." "

Equity means "Net Assets." Not Profit, only. The Accounting Formula is:

Assets = Liability + Equity

Turn that around:

Assets (what you own) minus Liability (what is owed) = Equity (Net Asset) and Net = Difference and Equity = Ownership position in the Company financial data.

R

rkumar1

How to record Profits/Losses from Loan Out S Corps, C Corps or LLCs in Personal books?

Should increase or decrease in Equity or Total Equity & Liability or Net Income be reflected in Personal books?

L

Larrylife1

So distributions reduce RE and not Shareholder capital. Is that always the case?

T

Teri11_2

Level 2

@TaxNewbie

Retained earnings is credit balance account (hopefully) of accumulated profit (or loss) earned on your Income Statement each year. QB makes that entry for you automatically, so no need to do entries.

Distributions is a debit balance account. So when you pay out Distributions, entry is a debit to your Distributions account and a credit to Cash account. So each each maintains its own running balance.

The credit balance in Retained Earnings ideally keeps growing each year that you make a profit.

The debit balance in Distributions account increases each time you pay yourself Distributions.

The net of the two is your Equity, whether you have amounts in one account or keep them in two.

Personally, I prefer to keep them separate so I can see how much profit I have earned over years.

Likewise, I prefer to be able to see how much I have taken in Distributions over the years also.

On my tax return, these two amounts are combined, but I like to keep visibility of both on books.

Just answered this question in greater detail for someone else, perhaps you can see if you click on me.

B

BeyondTheBox

When I see the term "Retained Earnings" I think that it's an amount of money that is still in the business coffers. That's why there is a propensity here to want to see it reflect distributions. The basic question for me, is do I have to adjust the RE account or does it simply reflect earnings or losses over time, not reflective of contributions or distributions.

For example, if I made a $50K profit from 2019 to 2020 and RE is 50K. However, there is only 10K in the business bank accounts on 1/1/20 after the $50K was distributed in 2019. The 10K reflects an initial investment. So looking at the RE is see a $50K profit and looking at my bank balance I see 10K. Its is correct to say that these two values do not need to be reconciled in Quickbooks i.e., RE = Bank Balance.

Is this making any sense?

S

ShiellaGraceA

Level 9

Thanks for coming in today, @BeyondTheBox.

I have some information about the retained earnings account in QBO. Since the amount of this account is generated automatically (Profit & Loss data), you'll want to create a journal entry to correct it.

However, I'd still suggest consulting with an accountant to make sure you're recording it accordingly. You can visit this link to find an accountant.

To create a journal entry, just go to +New and then Journal entry.

In case you need help with other tasks in QBO, you can browse this link to go to our general topic with articles.

Keep me posted if you still have questions or concerns with your account. I'll be around to help. Take care and have a good one.

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