I don't even know the proper terminology in which to present my question.

It appears you are treating accounts as "business years". So to create 2026, you would need to create a new "bank account" named appropriately.

Of course, backup the file first if you don't like the result so you can restore.

Click on the Tools menu and select Add account.

Assuming you are not downloading transactions, select Offline account. Under Banking, select Checking.

If you are just tracking income and expenses for the year and not the balance of a real account, name the account "2026 Business" and set the Opening balance to zero.

You are free to set up Quicken however you want, but be aware that this is an unusual way to use Quicken.

Reviewing the image you provided once again, I noticed that your Quicken window is missing a few elements, namely the Quicken Toolbar and the Main tabs.

To show these Quicken window elements, click the "v" icon in the upper right hand of the Quicken window and turn it into a "^"

Are you using Register Column Amount together with Charge and Payment Columns?
Does your account register show the Amount column together with Charge and Payment (or Payment and Deposit) columns? Is your register looking a little crowded with all these columns?
Depending on your personal preference you should use
• either the traditional pair of Charge and Payment columns together
• or the newer Amount column alone (where you have to enter negative amounts with a Minus sign and positive amounts with a plus sign)
but you really don't need all three of them.

Please decide which columns to use and remove the other one(s) from the view.
Q Windows: To add / delete columns in your register click the Register Columns gear icon located next to the Balance column header.
Q Mac: there's a Columns button at the bottom right of the register view