Why do my opening retained earnings not match the prior year?
Opening retained earnings frequently fail to match the prior year, often accompanied by an unbalanced year-end trial balance. These discrepancies leave accountants stuck and searching for outside advice to successfully complete difficult reconciliations.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Checking prior year adjustments
- 2Checking adjusting journal entries (AJEs)
- 3Checking that beginning balances match last year's ending balances
- 4seeking advice from senior colleagues or peers
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
r/Accounting2 people · September 2026 – October 2026
“Just had a file where opening RE was out AND the year end TB didn’t balance. Any advice for getting better at these recs?”source ↗
bradynotbrady · r/Accounting · 9 upvotes
“Please somebody DM”source ↗
Old-Present-4698 · r/Accounting · 1 upvotes
“My retained earnings opening do not match prior year.”source ↗
Old-Present-4698 · r/Accounting
Where this came up
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