How do you book retained earnings to dividends in year end? I have been taught not to touch the standard retained earnings account.

May I know why you shouldn't touch the system-generated account? We just book it directly to that RE, and so far we don't have any problem with it. But if it has to be separate, then maybe create a Parent R/E account, so you can easily see the total RE, and another child RE for manual recording, and make the system-generated one a child of that parent R/E?