On the balance sheet how is retained earnings worked out by quickbooks and what does it represent

I'm happy to have you here in the Community, @bradlortyres. Let me answer your question with the retained earnings to elucidate further.

Retained earnings represent the amount of your company's income and spending for all past years. This income and expenses will be shown in your Retained Earnings account. QBO will automatically add the previous fiscal year's net income to your Balance Sheet as Retained Earnings when the new fiscal year begins.

You can run your Profit and Loss report from previous year to see what makes up your Retained Earnings.

Here’s how:

1. Go to Reports.
2. Locate and select the Profit and Loss report.
3. From the Report period drop-down list, select All Dates.
4. Select Run report.

You can also refer to this article on how to view your retained earnings account details.

In case you need help with running reports, you can check out this article: Run reports in QuickBooks Online.

If you need further assistance with balance sheets and other reports, you can always hit the Reply button. Have a great day!