The beginning balance sheets shows your companies assets, liabilities and equity on the plans begin date.
Time Period /Date
The Beginning Balance Sheet presents a company's financial position on the Plan Begin Date. At the top of the Beginning Balance Sheet a date will appear. If you entered January 1, 2007 for your Company's Plan Begin Date the date will appear as "As of December 31, 2006". Think of the Balance Sheet as a "snapshot" of the company's financial position at a point in time. For the Beginning Balance Sheet the "snapshot" is taken 1 second before the Plan Begin Date, so it represents your company's financial position on the Plan Begin Date.
Sections of a Balance Sheet
The balance sheet has 3 major categories:
- Assets
- Liabilities
- Owner's Equity
Assets and liabilities are classified as either long term or short term. Generally long-term means more than a year and short term is a year or less.
Balance Sheet Calculations
The following is always true:
- Assets = Liabilities + Owner's Equity.
Some of the balance sheet accounts cannot be edited; they are calculated amounts. Calculations that appear on the Beginning Balance Sheet are as follows:
- Cash - set to Total Liabilities + Owner's Equity - All Assets other than cash.
- Net Fixed Assets - Fixed Assets less Accumulated Depreciation.
- Loans Payable - derived from the loan amortization schedule if a loan has been entered on the Loan page.
- Retained Earnings - set to the Net Income on the Start-Up Expense Statement.
- Accounts that begin with "Total" are the summation of a section.
Loans Payable
Loans Payable is derived from the loan amortization schedule if a loan has been entered (on the Loan page), then the amount will be set to zero.
Adding Balance Sheet Accounts
You cannot add accounts to the Balance Sheet. Rather than adding an account you should use the account that begins with "Other". There are four of these accounts one for each long and short term section on the Balance Sheet.
Deleting Balance Sheet Accounts
You cannot delete accounts on the balance sheet, but accounts (or entire sections) will not appear on your reports if they are set to $0.00 and you click on the box entitled "Hide rows / sections that contain all zeros" on the Reports - Formatting / Output page.