Do a husband & wife in a general partnership have to distinguish draws or contributions to the business for joint expenditures i.e.. Taking a draw to pay household bills. Or, how would I post the initial rent/lease payment for our startup from personal funds of our joint account. Should that initial rent payment of 3500 be split or can we share the owner equity account.

In a partnership you can do whatever you decide to do so if you just want one account called equity and you agree that and that certain expenses can be funded from it, this is not an issue. However if you set it up with several equity accounts each one the respnsibilty of a partner then you should change the structure.

I assume the rent is for business purposes, so it can be the contributed capital of one partner or split between the partners. The facts suggest it should be split or there should be only one equity account, very messy for tax purposes though