5 1: Describe and Prepare Closing Entries for a Business Business LibreTexts

Written by kahwyn, July 26, 2023

The expense accounts have debit balances so to get rid of their balances we will do the opposite or credit the accounts. Just like in step 1, we will use Income Summary as the offset account but this time we will debit income summary. The total debit to income summary should match total expenses from the income statement. A term often used for closing entries is “reconciling” the company’s accounts.

All drawing accounts are closed to the respective capital accounts at the end of the accounting period. This process begins with journalising and posting the closing entries. These posted entries will then translate into a post-closing trial balance, which is a trial balance that is prepared after all of the closing entries have been recorded.

• Closing entries are journal entries you make at the end of an accounting cycle that movie temporary account balances to permanent entries on your company’s balance sheet.
• In step 1, we credited it for $9,850 and debited it in step 2 for $8,790.
• Now for this step, we need to get the balance of the Income Summary account.
• The main change from an adjusted trial balance is revenues, expenses, and dividends are all zero and their balances have been rolled into retained earnings.

Temporary accounts are used to compile transactions that impact the profit or loss of a business during a year, while permanent accounts maintain an ongoing balance over time. The statement of retained earnings shows the period-ending retained earnings after the closing entries have been posted. When you compare the retained earnings ledger (T-account) to the statement of retained earnings, the figures must match.

Step #4: Close Dividends

Adjusting entries are used to modify accounts so that they’re in compliance with the accrual concept of recording income and expenses. We at Deskera offer the best accounting software for small businesses today. Our program is specifically developed for you to easily set up your closing process and initiate book closing within seconds – no prior technical knowledge necessary. Manually creating your closing entries can be a tiresome and time-consuming process. And unless you’re extremely knowledgeable in how the accounting cycle works, it’s likely you’ll make a few accounting errors along the way. Now, the income summary account has a zero balance, whereas net income for the year ended appears as an increase (or credit) of $14,750.

You begin the closing process by transferring revenue and expense account balances to the income summary account, a temporary account used specifically to transfer revenue and expense account balances. Closing your accounting books consists of making closing entries to transfer temporary account balances into the business’ permanent accounts. Since dividend and withdrawal accounts are not income statement accounts, they do not typically use the income summary account.

The revenue and expense accounts should start at zero each period, because we are measuring how much revenue is earned and expenses incurred during the period. However, the cash balances, as well as the other balance sheet accounts, are carried over from the end of a current period to the beginning of the next period. First, all the various revenue account balances are transferred to the temporary income summary account.

Frasker Corp. Closing Entries

The income summary account is then closed to the retained earnings account. At the end of the year, all the temporary accounts must be closed or reset, so the beginning of the following year will have a clean balance to start with. In other words, revenue, expense, and withdrawal accounts always have a zero balance at the start of the year because they are always closed at the end of the previous year. The $1,000 net profit balance generated through the accounting period then shifts. This is from the income summary to the retained earnings account.

Four Steps to Complete Closing Entries

Once this is done, it is then credited to the business’s retained earnings. A business will use closing entries in order to reset the balance of temporary accounts to zero. Understanding the accounting cycle and preparing trial balances
is a practice valued internationally. The Philippines Center for
Entrepreneurship and the government of the Philippines invested capital hold regular
seminars going over this cycle with small business owners. They are
also transparent with their internal trial balances in several key
government offices. Check out this article
talking about the seminars on the accounting cycle and this
public pre-closing trial balance presented by the Philippines
Department of Health.

What are the four closing entries in order?

We do not need to show accounts with zero balances on the trial balances. Closing entries take place at the end of an accounting cycle as a set of journal entries. The closing entries serve to transfer these temporary account balances to permanent entries on the company’s balance sheet. This resets the balance of the temporary accounts to zero, ready to begin the next accounting period. This is no different from what will happen to a company at the
end of an accounting period. A company will see its revenue and
expense accounts set back to zero, but its assets and liabilities
will maintain a balance.

It’s vital in business to keep a detailed record of your accounts. All accounts can be classified as either permanent (real) or
temporary (nominal) (Figure
5.3). All accounts can be classified as either permanent (real) or temporary (nominal) (Figure 5.3). You can close your books, manage your accounting cycle, issue invoices, pay back vendor bills, and so much more, from any device with an internet connection, just by downloading the Deskera mobile app.

The year-end closing is the process of closing the books for the year. This involved reviewing, reconciling, and making sure that all of the details in the ledger add up. The T-account summary for Printing Plus after closing entries
are journalized is presented in
Figure 5.7. Let’s explore each entry in more detail using Printing Plus’s
information from
Analyzing and Recording Transactions and
The Adjustment Process as our example. The Printing Plus
adjusted trial balance for January 31, 2019, is presented in

Figure 5.4. However, if the company also wanted to keep year-to-date
information from month to month, a separate set of records could be
kept as the company progresses through the remaining months in the
year.

To further clarify this concept, balances are closed to assure
all revenues and expenses are recorded in the proper period and
then start over the following period. The revenue and expense
accounts should start at zero each period, because we are measuring
how much revenue is earned and expenses incurred during the period. However, the cash balances, as well as the other balance sheet
accounts, are carried over from the end of a current period to the
beginning of the next period.

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The third entry closes the Income Summary account to Retained Earnings. This means that it is not an asset, liability, stockholders’ equity, revenue, or expense account. The account has a zero balance throughout the entire accounting period until the closing entries are prepared. Therefore, it will not appear on any trial balances, including the adjusted trial balance, and will not appear on any of the financial statements.