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Are you trying to view the retained earnings of a balance sheet in Quickbooks? Well, you probably won’t find this information listed on any report. This is because the transition happens on the back end of Quickbooks. So, unless you made other entries to the Retained Earnings account, it won’t show when you access the account.

The good news is that you still view the details of a Retained Earnings account in Quickbooks. To do so, you’ll need to run a customized Profit and Loss report, after which you can focus on the New Income number. For a step-by-step guide on how to view a Retained Earnings account in Quickbooks, keep reading.

Before we begin, it’s important to note that Quickbooks doesn’t allow you to click on retained earnings from the respective balance sheet. This is because the Retained Earnings account is essentially a rollover from the previous years’ net profit. In Quickbooks Online, it will swap the funds from your income automatically, without recording the transaction.

To view the details of a Retained Earnings account, you’ll need to run a Profit and Loss statement from the previous year, which will reveal the Retained Earnings account number. So, log in to your Quickbooks Online account and choose Reports > Go to report > Profit and Loss. From here, choose the Profit and Loss report, after which you can set the date to “All Dates” for the “Transaction Date” and then click “Run Report.” Finally, click “Net Income” to see a report of all transactions that fall under this criteria.

Intuit also recommends viewing the Profit and Loss report by year to see the details of a Retained Earnings account. Basically, this allows you to see the amount from the profit and loss transferred into your Retained Earnings account. To perform this operation, click Reports > Go to report > Profit and Loss > Customize > Rows/Columns > Fiscal Years or Calendar Years > Run Report.

Once you’ve run the report, check to see if the number listed is the same as your Returned Earnings number. If the number is different, only transactions that affect your balance sheet will be entered. You can see user-generated transactions by clicking the Gear icon > Chart of Accounts > Retained Earnings > Run Report > set Transaction Date to “All Dates” and then click “Run Report.”

Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!