Rogier,
Retained Earnings is an equity account so a retained earnings balance is
recorded against equity itself as follows if your past retained earnings were a
net profit (credit or +ve balance in your pevious set of accounts). If a net
loss (debit or -ve balance_ then the debit and credit would be reversed
Dr Cr
Equity:Opening Balances:Retained Earnings xxx
Equity:Retained Earnings xxx
You could equally well not transfer the individual equity sub account balances
and just transfer the total opening balance for Equity to your new set of books
and leave the balance at 0 for Equity:Retained Earnings and other sub accounts
except where you have a specific need for the detail since the
Retained earnings net balance contains no detail of the previous individual
years profit loss contributions to equity in any case.
This will all be contained in your previous set of books and the newly opened
set of books will contain that detail forward from the date the new books were
opened.
David Cousens
On Wed, 2021-09-22 at 16:21 -0400, Rogier F. van Vlissingen wrote:
> OH, thanks
>
> Yeah, I already proceeded, I filled in the opening balances where I could,
> and am now starting to create the other accounts which did not exist in the
> standard chart of accounts, but trying to go and edit "retained earnings" I
> do not see how I can add the opening balance.
>
> it's not too many accounts in all, probably 25 total.
>
> So, if I create that opening balance as a transaction e.g. for retained
> earnings, where does the balancing transaction go? I guess I am not God's
> greatest gift to the bookkeeping profession ;-)
>
> <
> http://rogierfentenervanvlissingen.me?promo=email_sig&utm_source=product&utm_medium=email_sig&utm_campaign=gmail_api&utm_content=thumb
> >
> Rogier Fentener van Vlissingen <http://rogierfentenervanvlissingen.me>
>
> <
> http://rogierfentenervanvlissingen.me?promo=email_sig&utm_source=product&utm_medium=email_sig&utm_campaign=gmail_api&utm_content=thumb
> >
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 4:00 PM Stephen M. Butler <
> stephen.m.butle...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Roger,
> >
> > I found it easier to leave all the opening balances at zero while
> > setting up the chart of accounts (COA). Then I create one massive
> > opening transaction dated (in your case) 12/31/2019.
> >
> > That way, if I find I forgot one account, I can add it later then go
> > back and adjust the opening transaction to include an entry for that new
> > account (I know the purist will have nightmares and would prefer you add
> > a new transaction).
> >
> > --Steve
> >
> > On 9/22/21 12:43 PM, Rogier F. van Vlissingen wrote:
> > > I am struggling to move an existing business into gnucash.
> > >
> > > Have a closing trial balance @ year end 2019
> > >
> > > In the setup screen I don't necessarily have all the accounts, so I
> > imagine
> > > I can set them up later, but some accounts that area available do not let
> > > me put in an opening balance.
> > >
> > > E.g. "retained earnings" has a balance, but in the set up screen there
> > is a
> > > greyed out "zero" and I cannot set up the opening balance. Can I edit
> > that
> > > later?
> > >
> > > I tried this before, but was never able to figure it out.
> > >
> > >
> > --
> >
> > Stephen M Butler, PMP, PSM
> > stephen.m.butle...@gmail.com
> > kg...@arrl.net
> > 253-350-0166
> > -------------------------------------------
> > GnuPG Fingerprint: 8A25 9726 D439 758D D846 E5D4 282A 5477 0385 81D8
> >
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