Retained Earnings - Opening Balance

Retained Earnings – Opening Balance is a default Equity account in PantherAccounting Plus that is automatically created with your Chart of Accounts when completing the Onboarding for Operating Accounting. This helps you transition your accounting data seamlessly into PracticePanther so you can begin entering and reconciling current financial activity for your law firm.

The Retained Earnings – Opening Balance account records any differences between balances already existing in PracticePanther and the balances entered during onboarding. Its primary role is to act as a placeholder when accounts do not immediately balance.

For existing PracticePanther firms, it is normal to see a larger balance in this account during onboarding. This is often because firm operating expenses and other historical accounting activity have not been recorded in PracticePanther prior to setting up PantherAccounting Plus.

Once onboarding is complete, the balance in Retained Earnings – Opening Balance can be allocated to the appropriate Chart of Accounts as needed. This allocation is typically done in consultation with your CPA and can be completed using the Journal Entry feature in PantherAccounting Plus.