Retained Earnings Account will only be “populated” based on your income (or loss) from the previous period. The transfer of the amount of your income (or loss) last period to the retained earnings of the current period is happening on the backend, thus it will not show any transaction in the report or in the retained earnings register.
Retained Earnings accounts are not usually used in transactions but are most often system-computed. In Transactions Saved Search, only those balances that are directly posted to these accounts through manual journal entries are expected to be reflected.
According to SuiteAnswers ID: 7666 | Year-End Closing, NetSuite does not post the balance to retained earnings because doing so would zero the past income statements and prevent them from being viewed.
Therefore, this functionality still falls in the mentioned Enhancement 460818 : Reports/Saved Search > Have the ability to fetch the value of the Retained Earnings and Cumulative Translation Adjustment Accounts to match the Consolidated Values.”
For the retained earnings, it is important to note that this account section has two sections:
1.) Cumulative Net Income
2.) Direct Posting to Retained Earnings account
This is also explained here: WATCH: Why Retained Earnings in Account Details differs vs Trial Balance report
As for the Cumulative Translation Adjustment account section it also has an account section for Direct Posting to Retained Earnings account
Manual creation in retained earnings
You can check the manually created amounts via the Account Register.
1.) Navigate to List > Accounting > Accounts, then look for CTA-E and Retained Earnings.
2.) Click on the Account name hyperlink
3.) Set the From date to the earliest and the To date to the reporting period (end of period) in your balance sheet
4.) Deduct the balance from the unaltered balance in a standard balance sheet, the difference should match your custom balance sheet.
Retained earnings without manual transactions:
1.) Customize the Trial Balance Report
2.) Go to Filters section
3.) Add filter: Trial Balance folder > Account (Line)
Select Retained Earnings
This should show the Retained Earnings without the manual journal entry/ies.
Retained Earning details
If you wish to know the breakdown of your Retained Earning using a Balance Sheet Detail report, we can follow the steps below:
1.) Navigate to Reports > Financial > Balance Sheet
2.) Click Customize
3.) Go Edit Layout section
4.) Click Retained Earnings, then set Display to Expanded. Also, click on the Display Row so that the total of this Section is displayed in the report:
5.) Save and Run your Report
Results:
When you go to the Retained Earnings section of the report, a breakdown will be available which is:
1.) Direct posting to Retained Earnings
2.) Cumulative Net Income (from the very beginning to the beginning of the reporting year)
When you click the amount in Net Income (Balance Forward to Beginning of Year) you will be routed an Income Statement as of the last period of the last fiscal year (depending on what you set on the report):
Method to get the correct Opening and Closing Retained Earnings result:
- Open Custom Trial Balance and click Customize
- Remove original Opening Balance and Closing Balance columns
- Add Trial Balance: Amount (Gross)/Amount(Debit/Credit) twice
- Click the 1st Trial Balance: Amount (Gross)/Amount(Debit/Credit)
> Set Column Label: Opening Balance
> Add Grand Total = T
> Alternate Period Range Type = Relative to report date
> Cumulative Value = T
> Alternate Period Range = Last Period
- Click the 2nd Trial Balance: Amount(Debit/Credit)
> Set Column Label: Closing Balance
> Add Grand Total = T
> Alternate Period Range Type = Relative to report date
> Cumulative Value = T
> Alternate Period Range = This Period
- Click Save and Run
Steps in adding the Debit and Credit are supposed to check the Cumulative Value as per SuiteAnswers Id: 73701
To Create Debit Balance Column
- Add Fields: Expand Trial Balance folder
- Click Amount (Debit)
- Alternate Period Range Type: Select Relative to report date
- Cumulative Value: Clear Checkbox
- Alternate Period Range: Select This Period
To Create Credit Balance Column
- Add Fields: Expand Trial Balance folder
- Click Amount (Credit)
- Alternate Period Range Type: Select Relative to report date
- Cumulative Value: Clear Checkbox
- Alternate Period Range: Select This Period