Nonprofits and "retained earnings"

Your post makes absolutley no sense.

Are you familiar with the issue of QB's treatment of "retained earnings" in nonprofits?

What issue is that?

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Then my question isn't directed at you.

Actually, it all falls into place if I simply look at the negative "retained earnings" as negative net worth.

Yes

And

The accounting equation: Assets=Liabilities+Equity should do it.

or Assets-Liabilities = Equity

Every question on this newgroup is directed to me. You post is still jibber wackey.

True but this does not address "the issue of QB's treatment of "retained earnings" in nonprofits?".

I think that involves something simple, like changing the name of that account to something more appropriate.

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"Retained earnings" don't mean anything in a nonprofit, but that's the name of the account you're stuck with, and that's what appears in the balance sheet printout. Perhaps the best answer is to export to Excel and rename the entry "cumulated net surplus/deficit". (Another suggestion made by various people is to call the entry "Net assets", but that looks weird under "Equity", and doesn't help when the figure's negative anyway.) There are some other tricky aspects to this in QB versions before 2005 Nonprofit, as you can't access the account directly, and retrospective adjustments to other entries by a nonprofit bookkeeper can really confuse things.

This account can be renamed to anything you want.

You can't access it as a register, but you can post to it and view activity in the balance sheet report. If you are using classes to track funds then fund accounts can be set up to move their balances from retained earnings to the fund accounts (long term liabilities) so retained earnings need never have a balance.

It sounds like you are losing your arse, quickly put everything in the wifes name grab the cash and bugger off.

Greg

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Oh. The bookkeeper said we couldn't do this in QB 03.

This is a trifle complicated, since the nonprofit is an annual arts festival, so a lot of the usual fund accounts don't apply. The deficit from the first couple of years is being carried forward as a revolving loan (credit line), which appears as a current liability.

Begin by telling them that balance sheets don't represent reality - they are just a relative measure.

For example, the Railway Express Agency started out with the Pony Express in

If it helps, you can add a bogus account that has obviously no relation to reality and move the numbers into that account. Some suggestions: "Good will," "Reserve for bad debt," "Accumulated depreciation," or other confusing cupboards used to make things come out even.

Lists/Chart of Accounts/Right click on Retained Earning/Select Edit/ change the name to what you want.

The usual sequence - okay. She said the program requires that name (like the "Unposted items" account).

If the program lets you change the name then changing it certainly will not affect how the account operates. You can change every aspect of this account except the TYPE. How can there be "unposted items" in Quickbooks? Maybe she means "unallocated items" when classes are used.

Stupid slip of the fingers - I meant "Undeposited items".

Same goes for that account too. Although QB creates it you can treat it as described above.