S-Corp Distributions and GNUCash

[Christopher Blunck]

Hi Anthony-

Thanks for the quick response.

There are 2 sets of books here - one for me (personally) and one for my company.

I realize I can create an Equity:Retained Earnings account but it is pretty confusing when you look at the Balance Sheet report to see Equity:Retained Earnings as well as "Retained Earnings" (in bold) down below.  I can change the Equity:Retained Earnings to Equity:Distributions and that would make it probably make it more clear.  I guess at that point the only thing that gives me concern is that the value of Equity:Distributions has a negative value and how can a balance sheet show negative values?  That doesn't seem to make sense to me ... but then again IANAA.

Your thoughts?


-c

On Nov 24, 2010, at 9:41 PM, Anthony Dardis wrote:

> (a) you can create a Retained Earnings account
> 
> (b) are there two sets of books involved here, one for the S-corp, one for you? The distribution from checking for the S-corp should (?) reduce equity for the S-corp; but then you are receiving the distribution, so that comes in to *your* books as (I'm guessing) income (so for you, a transaction from income to whereever the money actually ends up)?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, 24 Nov 2010 21:34:23 -0500, Christopher Blunck <chris at thebluncks.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hello-
>> 
>> I was wondering how to handle distributions from an S-Corp to owners in GNUCash.
>> 
>> From an accounting standpoint a distribution from an S-Corp is usually handled by:
>>  1.)  Decreasing  Assets:Checking Account  by some amount
>>  2.)  Decreasing  Equity:Retained Earnings by the same amount
>> 
>> Since GNUCash doesn't have an explicit "Retained Earnings" account I don't know how to journal this transaction.
>> 
>> I created an Equity:Distributions account but then the Balance Sheet shows a negative value for Equity:Distributions and that "doesn't smell right."
>> 
>> Can someone enlighten me on how to best approach this situation in GNUCash?  If I'm misunderstanding the accounting please feel free to correct me.  And if there is a "GNUCash way to do this" that I simply don't understand please share!  :)
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you for your time,
>> 
>> -c
>> 
>> --
>> Christopher Blunck
>> chris at thebluncks.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> gnucash-user mailing list
>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
>> https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user
>> -----
>> Please remember to CC this list on all your replies.
>> You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.