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Identifying the Retained Earnings Account

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Posted on by CU07100202-0

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Hi, Is there a way to identify, programmatically, which account from the chart of accounts is the retained earning account? It seems that account name is not reliable as it can be edited. Thanks in advance!

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Yi Yong 2,545 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Identifying the Retained Earnings Account

Hello,

You can use 'G/L Account Categories'.

Then assign it to the G/L Account's Account Subcategory.

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Andy Wingate 326 on at

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Identifying the Retained Earnings Account

Hello,

That entirely depends on the selection made as part of the year end last year. You would expect the financial controller, or whoever ran the year end process, would have picked the correct account! But just because an account is labelled as such, doesn't 100% mean that was the one selected when the income statement was closed for the prior year.

If you check the G/L entries and filter for "Close Income Statement" as the posting desc, (if they used that posting desc) then you could also find the accounts that way..

good luck!

All best

Andy

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Valentin Castravet 31,262 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Identifying the Retained Earnings Account

As noted, the retained earnings account is user-defined. You can pick something on the G/L Account card that represents only the retained earnings account. For example, you could create an account subcategory specifically for retained earnings that can be used to identify the account.

Valentin Castravet
Work: Zander ERP Services
Blog: Dynamics 365 Business Central Insights
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/valentin-c-0500a247/

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CU07100202-0 118 on at

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Identifying the Retained Earnings Account

The challenge with using the account subcategory is it is a user-define not a system one so I can not use it to identify the account PROGRAMMATICALLY. But thank you for your answers

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YUN ZHU 95,305 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Identifying the Retained Earnings Account

You can freely combine G/L Account or Account Category in financial report.

More details:

Prepare financial reporting with financial data and account categories

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/bi-how-work-account-schedule?wt.mc_id=DX-MVP-5004336

Hope this helps.

Thanks.

ZHU

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CU07100202-0 118 on at

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Identifying the Retained Earnings Account

Thanks YUN ZHU! But I need to identify it programmatically and account categories are not reliable as it can be edited by the user.

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Valentin Castravet 31,262 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Identifying the Retained Earnings Account

This is not possible. As we have pointed out, this account is user-defined. Every aspect of the system that classifies a G/L account as the retained earnings account is determined by the user.

When you create a G/L account, you can use it for any purpose. You populate specific fields on the G/L Account card to indicate its intended use, all of which are user-defined. The system does not impose a standard chart of accounts on you; for example, it won't assign account number 4000 as your retained earnings account with restrictions on changes.

Valentin Castravet
Work: Zander ERP Services
Blog: Dynamics 365 Business Central Insights
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/valentin-c-0500a247/

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