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How do I create a standard balance sheet?

LoboBeancounter

How do I create a standard balance sheet? There are reports for account balances, which give you limited reports on bank, brokerage, mortgage accounts, but how to get a full balance sheet?

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Accepted answers

Tom Young

Within Quicken a "full balance sheet" is generated by clicking Reports > Net Worth & Balances and then either Account Balances or Net Worth. Both reports are "full balance sheets" in that each and every Account in Quicken is included unless you expressly exclude it.

There is no "Net Worth/Equity" Account in Quicken, (well, there might be, but users have no direct access to it), and on the balance sheet reports it's derived as Assets minus Liabilities.

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NotACPA

If by "standard balance sheet" you mean the form that's presented in business annual reports ... then you can't do that in Quicken. You need to look at Quickbooks.

IF you mean a listing of assets and liabilities, with the net of those 2 groups, look at REPORTS, "Net Worth & Balances".

Q is a PERSONAL finance program, not a business oriented finance program. QB is business oriented.

Tom Young

There is no "Net Worth/Equity" Account in Quicken, (well, there might be, but users have no direct access to it), and on the balance sheet reports it's derived as Assets minus Liabilities.

LoboBeancounter

Thank you very much, Tom, for clarifying this!

John Mac

Taking this further... If my company buys a car, how do I account for it? (Basically, I want to add some line items to the Balance Sheet so that it provides more information.)

NotACPA

The car would be recorded in an Asset type account. Perhaps it's own account or perhaps lumped in with other assets.

The Purchase of the car is recorded as a transfer from the account that you use to make the purchase into that Asset account.

NOTE, that using either method, you also need to provide for a periodic (annual, at least) depreciation of that car. It won't be worth the purchase price forever (OR, even once you've driven it off the lot).

John Mac

Expanding on my question... My business has been active for many years. I want to have several line items, aka Categories, added to the Balance Sheet, both Assets and Liabilities. I have done OK with P&L changes and additions to the listed Categories but find no Categories for Balance Sheet. (It seems to me that without these, the program is really a very fancy and interesting One Write system.) Support tells me that I may not put in Beginning balances; however, by using an existing Excel spreadsheet I should be able to add the changes by account. (I have QBO now and really don't like or want to use it!) Advice or alternatives welcome and appreciated!

Tom Young

"I want to have several line items, aka Categories, added to the Balance Sheet, both Assets and Liabilities."

Some instruction in Quicken terminology. In Quicken-speak "Categories" are what real accountants would call "income and expense accounts." "Accounts" in Quicken-speak are what real accountants would call "balance sheet accounts."

To create new Accounts in Quicken you simply click on Tools > Add Account... and have at it. Support is wrong that you can't put in beginning balances. When you establish a new Account Quicken asks for that exact information:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6031128/uploads/editor/dk/ga28gw3k8aev.jpg

Having established the Account you can then add transactions after the "Date to start tracking" just as you do in any other Account. If you want to enter transactions prior to the "Date to start tracking" you can do that too, just change the dollar amount in that opening balance entry to make sure the current Account balance stays correct. If you enter transactions far enough "back in time", all the way back to when you opened the account in the real world, that opening balance would adjust down to "$0,"

Quicken can actually be called a "One Write system" but that doesn't mean it doesn't do "proper accounting." Quicken certainly follows the standard double entry convention. A "one write" system simply means that you only need to write the dollar amount one time but the dollar amount affects two ( or more) accounts, using the word "accounts" in the conventional accounting sense.