This is not an accounting issue. This is a software issue. There is a balance ‘stuck’ on that retained earnings account that has no transaction to back it up. Presumably the year end journal disappeared (deleted? not sure) at the point the year end changed but the balance on the retained earnings account was not recalculated at that point. A reindex (clone) did not fix it.
Adding a transaction against that account (which must recalculate the balances) did fix it.
See INFSN-15987

