Opening Balance Equity

How did you enter the loan balances? You should have no balance at all in the OBE account. If you get a loan to purchase something, you would normally Debit a Fixed Asset account for whatever you purchased and Credit the Long Term Liability account for the amount borrowed.
If it's a Line of Credit, you use Make Deposits and deposit the loan proceeds into your checking account. Select the Loan Liability account in the From Account column of the Deposit screen to record the funds being deposited instead of an income account.
When you create a new account, you should NEVER use the Beginning Balance area of the account creation screen. That is not what it is there for.
The only time you should use this area is when you have existing books on some other system and you're transferring the balances into QuickBooks.

Thanks,
I understand this. So, I need to delete the OB in the liability account. Then make a journal entry to credit the money back to the liability account and then set up a fixed asset account for the property. So, this fixed asset account that would have our mortgage for our property in it of $580000 would just sit there. I guess huh?

If you would tell me the entire story about what you purchased and what you borrowed, I could help you a lot better.

We purchased our church property and building where we hold services for $507,000.00. I think I have it. We had a fixed asset account number for land, building, and property. I put the total the property was paid for there and took it out of the opening balance where I had it.

Now you're getting the idea. The only other note I can think of is to find out the value of the Land itself and state it separately from the Building. The building is depreciated and the land is not. You can usually find this information online at the property appraisers office for your county. It will state the land value and the building value.

I started using quick books on Jan 2006. My question is I am transferring my asset and liabilities from a different software. When transferring my beginning balances for Accounts payable I debt the opening balance account and credit accounts payable and for my receivable I debt the receivable and credit the opening balance account is this correct? But when I enter my outstanding checks from the previous year I debt accounts payable and credit cash. Do I now debit the opening balance account and credit accounts payable to offset that debt balance in accounts payable?

Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable and the Checking account are the only three accounts that you DO NOT enter the opening balances into that way. All the other balances from the existing Trial Balance are entered and the offset goes into the Opening Balance Equity account.
For the Accounts Receivable balance, you need to actually create an Invoice for each Customer for their balance as of the Start Date so the total of these invoices equals the A/R beginning balance. You set up a new Other Charge type (NT) Invoice Item that is linked to the Opening Balance Equity account and use that on the Invoices. These can be dated as of their original dates or the date before the start date in QuickBooks. I use the original dates so my aging will be correct.
Same goes for the Accounts Payable, enter a Bill for each one of the Vendors that make up the A/P balance as of the start date so you have bills to pay using the OBE item also.
For the Checking account, use the ending cleared balance from the last bank statement dated before you started. Then go into Write Checks and re-enter all the outstanding checks with their original dates and check numbers and charge them to the OBE account. Any outstanding Deposits are entered also and you wind up with the Reconciled balance in the checking register.
If done correctly, the OBE account should have no balance.

For my accounts receivables, they are not customers. Its actually money due to me from the government. What we do is issue expenses to the government and they reimburse us the money. We set it up as a receivable by debt rec and credit revenue, when we received we credit the rec and debt cash. Do I still have to set it up through creating an invoice?

If you're going to use Journal Entries and not actually issue Invoices for sales income in QuickBooks, then create another Current Asset type account called Due From US Goverment and Debit that account instead.
The Accounts Receivable account in QuickBooks is a special account designed for the Invoicing/Receive Payments area of the program itself tracking your Customer Receivables from normal business sales or services. It is not designed to be used with Journal Entries.

Then I can credit the Opening balance account to offset that debt correct?

Yes, if you're not using their special accounts, use Opening Balance Equity for every balance on the exising Trial Balance from the other system and you should wind up with zero in that account if it's all entered correctly. That is just a Suspense account really until you enter all the Beginning Balances into the system.

What is the difference between Opening Balance Equity, Capital Stock, and Owner's Equity/Contribution?

I have a sub-s corp and I am starting a restaurant. I am contributing $300k by issuing 1000 shares to myself. I am using this 300k to purchase equipment, asset, inventory, and working capital. How do I account this capital contribution initially in quick book? Does it goes in as Opening Balance Equity, or Capital Stock, or Owner's contribution?

First look at the Stock Certificate or the Incorporation Articles and see if there is any Par Value for the Stock. The number of issued Shares X the Par Value is the amount you record in the Capital Stock account.
Next, I don't live in your State so I don't know whether they have any "minimum capitalization rules" there but some states insist that a certain amount go to Additional Paid In Capital (equity) also. As for the rest of the money, are you planning on taking it back out of the company later on? If you are going to want to be repaid, then set up a Long Term Liability type account called Loan From Shareholder for the rest.
Opening Balance Equity is a Suspense account where you "park" stuff that needs to be classified somewhere else but you don't know where yet. It really should never have any balance if the books are correct.
Owner's Contributions is for a Sole Proprietor and you can Edit that account and Rename it Additional Paid In Capital.
Then, to start out, make a Journal Entry to Debit the various assets you mentioned above and Credit the accounts we just discussed.
If it's $1 par stock, then $1000 would go to Capital Stock, any amount you decide to APIC and the rest to the Loan From Shareholder.
Later you can use Write Checks and issue yourself a repayment and charge that same Loan account reducing the company's balance owed back to you. These repayments are NOT taxable income. I hope all this helped.

Hello,

Thank you. It was helpful. What if there is no par value and I am not planning to take the money back out of the company later on. All I would be taking out each year is the distribution of profits of the company. What should I do in this situation.

Hi, I just set up a new client and the equity section still has an opening balance equity amount. ..did I do something wrong? The assets and liabilities show the correct amts in the correct acct. Should I move the OBE amount into R/E? Or did I misunderstand the comment about the OBE should be cleared when all bal sheet accounts are input? thanks!

If there is no Par Value stated, then the total amount that you contributed goes into the Capital Stock account and nothing is in the Additional Paid In Capital account.

You didn't say what kind of tax return is filed for your company, but if it is a corporation and all the balances are correct, the balance left in the OBE account would agree with your Retained Earnings balance and YES, you would make a journal entry to move it there.
If it's a Sole Proprietorship, just move the balance into the RE account.

How do I enter a negative balance for our beginning balance for the new year of 2008? My Quickbooks will not allow me to enter a negative number.