The Balance Sheet in QuickBooks Online

The Balance Sheet is a snapshot of what your business owns and what it owes at a single moment. It lists your assets on one side and your liabilities and equity on the other, and the two sides balance: what you own equals what you owe plus what the owners have contributed and left in the business. Where the Profit and Loss covers a span of time, the Balance Sheet is always stated as of one date.

What the Balance Sheet shows

The report is organized into three parts as of the date you choose. Assets include cash, accounts receivable, inventory, and fixed assets like equipment. Liabilities include accounts payable, loans, credit card balances, and taxes owed. Equity includes owner contributions, retained earnings from prior years, and the current year's net income. Total assets equal total liabilities plus equity, which is where the report gets its name. The current-year net income it carries comes straight from the Profit and Loss.

Cash basis vs accrual basis

The Balance Sheet varies with the accounting method. On the accrual basis it shows accounts receivable, the money customers owe you, and accounts payable, the money you owe vendors, because accrual accounting records those before the cash moves. On the cash basis those balances largely fall away, because unpaid invoices and bills are generally not recognized until money changes hands. Asset totals and equity can differ between the two versions, so a CPA may want a specific one. QuickBooks switches the basis with a toggle and re-runs the report, which is why a complete archive keeps the Balance Sheet in both.

Why a CPA or auditor asks for it

A Balance Sheet establishes the financial position behind a tax return, a loan application, or a sale. Its equity section carries retained earnings forward from one year to the next, so a gap in your history breaks the continuity a preparer relies on. A lender or a buyer reads it to judge solvency and how the business is capitalized. It ties to the Trial Balance: every asset, liability, and equity balance on it comes from the same underlying account totals, which an auditor can trace back through the ledger.

How to run and export the Balance Sheet in QuickBooks Online

1. Go to the Reports menu and type "Balance Sheet" into the report search box, then open it.
2. Set the report date. Because the Balance Sheet is stated as of a single date, run one report per fiscal year-end so you keep the position at the close of each year.
3. Set the accounting method to Cash or Accrual near the top of the report, and run it.
4. Use the export control at the top of the report to export it to Excel or PDF. The file downloads to your computer.
5. Switch the accounting method to the other basis, run the report again, and export that version too.

Unlike the ledger, a single All Dates run does not capture year-end positions, so a Balance Sheet for each fiscal year-end is the way to preserve the full picture. Our guide to exporting all your data from QuickBooks covers how the statements fit with the rest of your records.

Keeping the Balance Sheet after you cancel

The Balance Sheet is part of your Books Backup archive, captured in both cash and accrual basis, one for each fiscal year-end in your history. A cancelled paid QuickBooks Online company stays read-only for 12 months and is then permanently deleted, a trial only 90 days, and the IRS generally expects business records to be kept for at least three years, and longer in some situations. A Balance Sheet from a closed year is often exactly what a lender, buyer, or examiner asks for long after the fact.

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean for a Balance Sheet to balance?

The report is built so that total assets equal total liabilities plus equity. If QuickBooks ever shows the two sides out of balance, it points to a data problem in the books rather than normal activity, which is one reason accountants review the report closely.

Should I keep the cash and accrual versions?

Yes. Your tax return may sit on one basis while your internal reporting uses the other, and an accountant or auditor may ask for whichever you did not save. Both versions come from the same books, and exporting the second one takes a moment while the company is still open.

Does one Balance Sheet cover my whole history?

No. It shows balances as of a single date. Because the equity section carries retained earnings forward, each year's report depends on every year before it, so a full run at each fiscal year-end, kept together, is what preserves the continuity a preparer needs.