Owner Equity Accounts

Use Owner Equity Accounts for the "net worth" value of the business.

HINT-- Goldenseal accounting software uses Owner Equity accounts to track equity values for multiple owners.

WORKING WITH OWNER EQUITY ACCOUNTS
        When to Use Owner Equity Accounts | Using Owner Equity Accounts

ENTERING OWNER EQUITY DATA
        Creating Owner Equity Accounts | Data Fields | Calculated Fields | Status Field

OWNER EQUITY RECORDS
       Entering Records | Changing Records | Deleting Records | Voiding Records
       Finding Records | Sorting Records | Fixing Mistakes

Website Info Links
       Accounting Software | Bookkeeping Software

RELATED TOPICS
       Equity Transfers | Owners

When to Use Owner Equity Accounts

Use Owner Equity accounts to handle owner, partnership or corporate equity. The sum of all Owner Equity items is equal to the net worth of the business.

If you want to track owner equity in more detail, you can create additional Owner Equity accounts, and transfer money between them.

HINT-- Owner Equity is considered as a liability by accountants, since it is money that the business "owes" to the owner or owners. On the balance sheet, owner equity is listed as a liability, with assets = owner equity + other liabilities.

Creating Owner Equity Accounts

To create a new Owner Equity account, follow these steps:

1. Choose Owner Equity from the Accounts menu.
2. Choose New Record from the Edit menu, or click the New button.
3. Fill out information about the account.

QUICK SETUP HINT -- You only need to enter an Account Name and Owners.  For accurate reconciling, enter a Starting Balance.

Data Fields

Enter the following information for each Owner Equity account:
Account Name-- Enter a short name for the account. This is the text that will appear in the Chart of Accounts and in pop-up menus.
Starting Balance-- Enter the starting amount for this account.
Owners -- Enter the owners who own this share, along with their percentages. The total percentage must add up to 100%.
HINT-- To enter new owners, choose Other Lists from the Options menu, and choose the Owners submenu.
Created-- When you create an account, today's date will be entered automatically.
Record Number-- An internal record number will automatically be assigned.
Comments-- Enter any comments you'd like to make about this account.
Include in Starter File-- Turn on the checkmark if you'd like to include this account when you export a Starter file.

Calculated Fields

Goldenseal shows the following calculated values for this account:
Current Balance-- The current balance is the most recent running total, after all cash transactions are included.
Last Changed-- Goldenseal shows the date of the most recent change in this account.

Status Field

Enter the current status of this account:
Active-- You currently do business with this customer.
Inactive-- You don't currently do business with this customer, but you may in the future.
Closed-- You definitely don't do business with this customer any more.

Using Owner  Equity Accounts

Use Equity Transfers to adjust the equity value of Owner Equity accounts.

Multiple Owners

To allocate ownership shares to multiple owners, follow these steps:

1. Choose Liability Accounts from the Accounts menu, then choose Owner Equity from the submenu.
2. Click the New button.
3. Enter the first owner into the first row of the Owner breakdown table. Also enter their percentage of ownership.
4. Press the Return key, and enter the next owner and their percentage.
5. Repeat step 4 until all owners are entered.
6. If you use more than one way to divide profits or ownership, click the New button, and repeat steps 3 to 5.

NOTE-- Goldenseal currently does not track equity for multiple owners, but that feature will be added in a later version.

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