It happens to be a loss. I seem to be missing something. For all the other accounts, I simply post to the account with the balancing transaction going to Opening Balances. But because of what I described, I get Opening Balances $x and Retained Earnings $0. Nothing I can think of gets the money from Opening Balances into Retained Earnings.
Or is it that when I set it up, I have to do some split transactions to make sure the appropriate amount ends up in Retained Earnings and the remainder is Retained Earnings? Not sure how, but I could give that a try, I will just have to set that up all over again. On Thu, Dec 30, 2021 at 3:33 PM <[email protected]> wrote: > Rogier > > What is the form of the transaction being used to record the opening > balance of the Retained Earnings account. Assuming your business has been > profitable and it is not a loss, then the transaction to record its opening > balances it should be something like > Dr > Cr > Equity:Opening Balances xxx > Equity: Retained Earnings xxx > > This should reduce the balance of the Retained earnings account while > keeping the overall Equity account balance constant. > > David Cousens > > On Thu, 2021-12-30 at 15:18 -0500, Rogier F. van Vlissingen wrote: > > > > Thanks, I do not get it. I can set up all the opening balances, except one > retained earnings. To me retained earnings on 1/1/2020 is the accumulated > position from prior years, I do not see how I can finagle that via what sub > accounts. Evidently, when I set up the opening transaction, which is fairly > simple, the retained earnings is left at zero, because I cannot access it, > and so that difference pops up as part of the opening balance accumulator > account, which is therefore too high by the exact amount of the retained > earnings. > > Am I missing something? > > On Thu, Dec 30, 2021 at 2:52 PM <[email protected]> wrote: > > Rogier > > > When you transfer account to a new set of books, you would record the > opening > balances of the Asset and Liability accounts against the Opening balances > entries in Equity. > > Asset entries will be a debit to the asset account and a credit to the > opening > balances account and Liabilities a credit to the liability account and > debit to > the opening balances account in Equity. > > With this all you previous equity balances have been transferred to the > Opening > Balances account and the books are balanced. The Opening Account Balance > should > equal the total Equity balance in your previous set of books. > > If you wish to restore the Equity sub-account balances (assuming the > accounts > have a credit balance in your previous books), you would need to credit the > aappropriate Equity sub-account in your new book for the amount of its > balance > in the previous set of books and debit the Opening Balances account for > the same > amount. This will keep the books balanced. > > If you restore all the previous books equity sub-account balances, then if > your > previous set of books was balanced, the Opening Balances account should > end up > with a 0 balance. > > As John pointed out, the initial account setup daemon only allows you to > set the > opening balances for asset and liability accounts. To restore the Equity > balances you would need to enter the transactions manually from the Opening > Balances register after creating the equity subaccounts initially with zero > balances. > > David Cousens > > > On Thu, 2021-12-30 at 06:33 -0500, Rogier F. van Vlissingen wrote: > > Yeah, thanks. I am on mint, and it has version 3.8. I was able to do > > something like that in version 3.8. However, I had some problems with it, > > and moved to 4.9 now because of some other problems, but now I can't do > > this, and that sort of kills the fun. > > > > Let's see if someone comes up with a better suggestion... hope springs > > eternal... and if not, I am moving to another platform. > > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Dec 30, 2021 at 12:34 AM William Prescott <[email protected] > > > > wrote: > > > > > Please disregard. > > > > > > About a year ago, I set up a new Gnucash data file and chart of > accounts. > > > I remember making some mistakes setting up the opening balances. I > > > recollect having problems changing the Opening Balance entries and > having > > > to edit the Opening Balances account (from the Accounts tab->Opening > > > Balances->Edit) and changing something to make the entries editable. > > > > > > But I cannot reproduce it now. > > > > > > Will > > > > > > On 2021 Dec 29, at 12-29 20:41:13, Rogier F. van Vlissingen < > > > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Hi, thanks for that, but I cannot find any mechanism to "unlock" a read > > > only account, nor does there seem to be anything in the manual about > > > "unlocking?" Please clarify. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Wed, Dec 29, 2021 at 9:29 PM William Prescott < > [email protected] > > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > I'm not sure if this is relevant … > > > > > > By default, the Opening Balance account is locked and transactions are > > > only created there when you create a new account and give it an opening > > > balance. But you can unlock the Opening Balance account and then > adjust the > > > transactions or add or delete them like in any other account. > > > > > > Will > > > > > > On 2021 Dec 29, at 12-29 18:52:16, John Ralls <[email protected] > <mailto: > > > [email protected]>> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Dec 29, 2021, at 4:08 PM, Rogier F. van Vlissingen < > > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > I had previously moved to GnuCash3.8 starting 1/1/2020, > unfortunately, > > > > there appears to be some sort of corruption in my file. > > > > > > > > I am now doing it over in 4.9. > > > > > > > > However, I am having a problem with the Opening Balances for 2020, > as I > > > > seem to be unable to set up an opening balance for retained earnings. > > > > > > > > The numbers check out, but everything goes in Opening balances, > which is > > > > therefore too high by the amount of the retained earnings. > > > > > > > > You can't even do a transfer. > > > > > > > > > > > > What is to be done? > > > > > > A business book wouldn't normally have an opening balances account. > OTOH > > > money is fungible and it doesn't really make sense to divide every > asset's > > > start-of-year balance between liabilities, paid-in capital, and > retained > > > earnings, so it's in my mind quite defensible to use Opening Balances > to > > > accumulate everything. Liabilities are handled by creating normal > opening > > > balance entries. The New File Hierarchy Assistant doesn't let you make > > > opening balance entries in Equity accounts, but you can add > transactions to > > > RE and whatever you're calling paid-in capital to zero out Opening > Balances > > > when you've finished with the assistant. > > > > > > Regards, > > > John Ralls > > > _______________________________________________ > > > gnucash-user mailing list > > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user < > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user> > > > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists < > > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists> for more information. > > > ----- > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > gnucash-user mailing list > > > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user < > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user> > > > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists < > > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists> for more information. > > > ----- > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > gnucash-user mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > > > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. > > > ----- > > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > gnucash-user mailing list > > [email protected] > > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. > > ----- > > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > [email protected] > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see > https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user If you are using Nabble or Gmane, please see https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Mailing_Lists for more information. ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. 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