Skip to content

Income allocation

At the end of every financial year, you might need to allocate income to the beneficiaries of a company, partnership or unit trust. MYOB can be set up for handling this type of income distribution.

Detailed below are the steps involved with setting up income allocation by modifying your accounts list then determining how you want to distribute the income.

This can be a complex area and the scenario below might not suit your needs. You should always seek financial advice regarding the best solution for your circumstances.

Create equity accounts for each person

For each person you’re allocating income to, ensure you have all the necessary accounts in the Equity section of your accounts list. Here’s an example of accounts set up for a partnership:

3-0000 Equity

 3-1000 John Smith

   3-1010 JS - Retained Earnings
   3-1015 JS - Capital Contributions
   3-1020 JS - Current Earnings
   3-1025 JS - Drawings

 3-2000 Rachael Smith

   3-2010 RS - Retained Earnings
   3-2015 RS - Capital Contributions
   3-2020 RS - Current Earnings
   3-2025 RS - Drawings

1. Set up equity accounts for income allocation

AddAdd

  1. Go to the Accounting menu and choose Chart of accounts.

  2. Click the Equity tab.

  3. If you haven't already, click Create account and create equity accounts for each person you'll be distributing profit or loss to. Need a refresher on creating accounts?

    As a minimum, create:

  • A header account: This serves as a group header for the person (see 3-1000 in the example above).

  • A Retained Earnings detail account: This is the running balance of the person’s share of profits or losses from previous financial years (see 3-1010 in the example above).

  • A Current Earnings detail account: This is the person’s share of the current year’s profit or loss (see 3-1020 in the example above).

Depending on your entity type, you might also need other accounts, for example to handle capital contributions and drawings.

Do I need to include the person’s name in every account name? For easy recognition in reports, you should include the person’s name, initials or another identifier in the account names. The account name can have up to 60 characters.

Can I use the default Retained Earnings (3-8000) and Current Earnings (3-9000) accounts? No, you can’t use them as they’re system accounts, and will show a $0 balance. You need to create new accounts for each partner or beneficiary.

2. Distribute income to the beneficiaries

AddAdd

  1. Click your business name and choose Income allocation.

  2. Choose your Entity type (Company, Partnership or Unit Trust).

  3. For each person, choose the Header account, Retained earnings account and Current year earnings account you set up for them earlier.

  4. In the Equity (%) column, enter the percentage distribution that applies to each person. When you’re finished entering each person’s distribution percentage, the total for this column must be 100%.

  5. When you're done, click Save.

FAQs

How is the profit or loss distributed to each person?

AddAdd

The Current Earnings accounts in the Accounts page and your reports will always show each person’s share of the current year’s profits or losses. At the start of the financial year, those amounts will be transferred to each person’s Retained Earnings account.

What if I change the percentages, or add and remove people throughout the year?

AddAdd

No problem. The amounts allocated to the Current Earnings accounts will recalculate automatically.