When I see the term "Retained Earnings" I think that it's an amount of money that is still in the business coffers. That's why there is a propensity here to want to see it reflect distributions. The basic question for me, is do I have to adjust the RE account or does it simply reflect earnings or losses over time, not reflective of contributions or distributions.

For example, if I made a $50K profit from 2019 to 2020 and RE is 50K. However, there is only 10K in the business bank accounts on 1/1/20 after the $50K was distributed in 2019. The 10K reflects an initial investment. So looking at the RE is see a $50K profit and looking at my bank balance I see 10K. Its is correct to say that these two values do not need to be reconciled in Quickbooks i.e.,  RE = Bank Balance.

Is this making any sense?