QuickBooks Balance Sheet export (Excel / CSV)
An as-of statement of assets, liabilities and equity that people trust to always balance, when a filtered export or an unresolved setup plug account can leave it not balancing, and the equity section carries software-computed lines that are not real accounts.
The shape, how the file is really laid out
Preamble: company, "Balance Sheet", "As of <date>", and basis. Indented
sections, ASSETS (Current: Bank, Accounts Receivable, Other Current; Fixed
Assets; Other Assets), LIABILITIES (Current: Accounts Payable, Credit Cards,
Other Current; Long-Term), EQUITY, each closed by a "Total" row, ending in
Total Assets, Total Liabilities, Total Equity, and Total Liabilities and
Equity. Contra-asset accounts like Accumulated Depreciation print negative,
e.g. (18,500.00). Equity includes Retained Earnings and a current-period Net
Income line, both auto-computed, and frequently an Opening Balance Equity line.
The traps
Opening Balance Equity is a QuickBooks setup artifact, not a real equity account; a nonzero balance signals an unreconciled opening entry or import, not genuine capital.
- Every trap in this export, worked through
- The reconciliation anchor, the total the file asserts about itself
- The refusal cases, when to stop and ask instead of guess
Reference: Intuit QuickBooks Online Help, "Balance Sheet" report and "What is Opening Balance Equity" · QuickBooks report basis (cash/accrual) documentation (reference only)