I have a controller that's annoyed about the Net Income (Balance Forward to Beginning of Year) line that shows up on the balance sheet for a subsidiary that hasn't had anything posted in years (no, he doesn't just want formatting changed. LOL). I've tried to use the suiteanswers breakdown to explain it to him but he feels something has changed. Does anyone have any experience with this? Trying to explain that it's probably due to it being the last month of the year and the systems is showing what is being pushed into 2021. Thoughts?

The Net Income line on the balance sheet should show the YTD Net Income. Is there really no activity in the subsidiary the whole year? What happens if you run a YTD income statement for that subsidiary?

Even if there's no activity in that given year - there had to have been activity in prior years that would show in the retained earnings account.

Thank you gentlemen. I did run a YTD income statement and nothing has posted for 2020. The last post for this sub was 2019. I may rename the account as recommended just to calm down my controller. Thanks again!