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Previous Earnings vs. Retained Earnings in Puzzle

What the Previous Earnings line on your balance sheet is, how it differs from the Retained Earnings account, and why Retained Earnings may not change over time.

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Written by Patricia Daos

In the equity section of your balance sheet you may see both Previous Earnings and Retained Earnings. They work differently.

Previous Earnings

Previous Earnings is a line Puzzle calculates for you. It adds up the revenue, expense, and gain/loss balances from prior periods and shows the result in equity.

  • It's not a separate account in your chart of accounts.

  • There's no closing journal entry behind it, so you won't find it in the General Ledger.

  • It updates automatically when anything in a prior period changes.

Retained Earnings

Retained Earnings is a regular equity account. Its balance only reflects what's actually been posted to it, for example an opening or migrated balance, or a journal entry you or your accountant posted to it directly.

Because Puzzle tracks prior-period results in Previous Earnings, Retained Earnings usually stays at the same balance over time. That's expected.

Reading your balance sheet

Together, Previous Earnings and Retained Earnings make up your accumulated earnings from prior periods. If you're preparing statements outside Puzzle and want a single retained earnings figure, add the two lines together.

There isn't a setting today to move the Previous Earnings amount into the Retained Earnings account.

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