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Carried Forward Balance Account QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise
Carried Forward Balance Account QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise

Why is a carry forward balance account required for QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise?

Natalie Flex avatar
Written by Natalie Flex
Updated over a week ago

Amazon settlements are generally paid every 1-2 weeks, but will often cross a month boundary. For example, one settlement may start in October and run through November. 

A2X will split the settlement data according to which month the sales or fees actually occurred in. This will ensure that your financial accounts properly record the transactions in the month they occurred. This will also make months more comparable to previous months and years for your reporting.
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What is the "Carry Forward Balance" account used for?

When we split the settlement entry we use a 'Carried Forward Balance' account to carry over the pending Amazon settlement balance. This then allows you to simply reconcile the deposit from Amazon to a single journal entry only reflecting the total final settlement. 

A visual example of this is shown below.

Our example settlement period starts on September 28th and runs through to October 4th. 

A2X will split the settlement so that the correct settlement data is allocated to September and the correct settlement data is allocated to October. 

In our example, the split would be as follows:

- September journal covering the data from September 28th - September 30th
- October journal covering the data from October 1st - October 4th

Once you send these invoices from A2X to QuickBooks, you will see the two journals contain a Carried Forward Balance amount. 

The September entry is a Debit to the Carry Forward Balance account and the October entry is a Credit to the Carry Forward Balance account. 


September Journal

October Journal

Effectively, we are simply debiting the Carried Forward Balance account in one month and then crediting the same account for the same amount in the very next month, all within the one settlement that has been split by month.

Now, you can go on and reconcile your Amazon settlements!

A2X and QuickBooks Desktop/QuickBooks Enterprise: For more information on how to use A2X for Amazon accounting with QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Enterprise, read our article HERE

Uploading your Chart of Accounts File: For more information on uploading your chart of accounts, read our article HERE.

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