Why are RE not equal with RE on Balance sheet?

1

I searching for the answer why calculated retained earnings are not equal with retained earnings on balance shet? For example.: 3M 2016 net income was 5,058, dividend paid 2,678. RE = 5,058 - 2,678 Calculated RE = 2,380. But on balance sheet 2016 RE = 37,907, 2015 RE = 36,575. RE for year 2016 on BS = 37,907 - 36,575 = 1,332. Where is this 1,048 difference are?
The data are from Morningstar

Thank you

2

There should not be a difference.

It would be more helpful if you could provide more information on this like:

  • Version of manager
  • Summary screen
  • Balance sheet report parameters
  • Statement of changes in equity
  • Retained earnings ledger

Off-course if any of those contains sensitive information, you can redact them or examine them yourself and report relevant information.

3

Morningstar has nothing to do with your Manager accounts. The balance of Retained earnings reflects only transactions you have entered in the program. If your setup is incorrect, particularly for starting balances, Manager will allocate the difference to Retained earnings in order to balance the accounting equation.

So, if whatever business entity you are accounting for was ongoing before you started using Manager, you need to properly set up starting balances. Begin with this Guide: https://www.manager.io/guides/15718. Depending on the nature of your operations, you may need more detailed instructions on customer, supplier, or inventory starting balances. There are specific Guides about those.

4

This does not appear to be a question related to Manager. This seems to me to be a question about how to read public financial statements of the 3M Company.

@Sweiz_Temporary, this is not a general accounting forum; it is a support forum for the Manager accounting software (though sometimes general accounting questions do arise from the software’s use).

In regards to your question, Retained Earnings on any company’s balance sheet will never match the retained earnings you calculate from the income statement; the balance sheet amount is the cumulative amount of all retained earnings since the business began. The income statement is only activity over one business cycle. Plus, there are other transactions that may affect Retained Earnings that do not take place on the income statement. To answer your question you should review the Statement of Changes in Shareholders’ Equity.

If you don’t have questions specifically about Manager but are just curious to learn more about accounting I can recommend AccountingCoach.com

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