4 8: Closing Entries Business LibreTexts

The second entry requires expense accounts close to the Income Summary account. To get a zero balance in an expense account, the entry will show a credit to expenses and a debit to Income Summary. Printing Plus has $100 of supplies expense, $75 of depreciation expense–equipment, $5,100 of salaries expense, and $300 of utility expense, each with a debit balance on the adjusted trial balance. The closing entry will credit Supplies Expense, Depreciation Expense–Equipment, Salaries Expense, and Utility Expense, and debit Income Summary. We see from
the adjusted trial balance that our revenue accounts have a credit
balance. To make them zero we want to decrease the balance or do
the opposite.

• Whether you’re processing closing entries manually, or letting your accounting software do the work, closing entries are perhaps the most important part of the accounting cycle.
• For this reason, these types of accounts are called temporary or nominal accounts.
• The balance in the Income Summary account equals the net income or loss for the period.
• After closing, the balance of Expenses will be zero and the account will be ready for the expenses of the next accounting period.
• HighRadius Autonomous Accounting Application consists of End-to-end Financial Close Automation, AI-powered Anomaly Detection and Account Reconciliation, and Connected Workspaces.

Closing entries are the journal entries used to transfer the balances of these temporary accounts to permanent accounts. The income summary account serves as a temporary account used only during the closing process. It contains all the company’s revenues and expenses for the current accounting time period.

Step 3: Close Income Summary to the appropriate capital account

After this closing entry has been posted, each of these revenue accounts has a zero balance, whereas the Income Summary has a credit balance of $7,400. Other accounting software, such as Oracle’s PeopleSoft™, post closing entries to a special accounting period that keeps them separate from all of the other entries. So, even though the process today is slightly (or completely) different than it was in the days of manual paper systems, the basic process is still important to understand. As with other journal entries, the closing entries are posted to the appropriate general ledger accounts. After the closing entries have been posted, only the permanent accounts in the ledger will have non-zero balances.

The accounts that need to start with a clean or $0 balance going into the next accounting period are revenue, income, and any dividends from January 2019. To determine the income (profit or loss) from the month of January, the store needs to close the income statement information from January 2019. After preparing the closing entries above, Service Revenue will now be zero. The expense accounts and withdrawal account will now also be zero.

Financial Accounting

Income summary is not reported on any financial statements because it is only used during the closing process, and at the end of the closing process the account balance is zero. Closing entries, on the other hand, are entries that close temporary ledger accounts and transfer their balances to permanent accounts. The purpose of closing entries is to merge your accounts so you can determine your retained earnings. Retained earnings represent the amount your business owns after paying expenses and dividends for a specific time period. A net loss would decrease retained earnings so we would do the opposite in this journal entry by debiting Retained Earnings and crediting Income Summary. All of these entries have emptied the revenue, expense, and income summary accounts, and shifted the net profit for the period to the retained earnings account.

Printing Plus has $100 of dividends with a debit balance on the adjusted trial balance. The closing entry will credit Dividends and debit Retained Earnings. Notice that the balances in the expense accounts are now zero and are ready to accumulate expenses in the next period. The Income Summary account has a new credit balance of $4,665, which is the difference between revenues and expenses (Figure 5.5). The balance in Income Summary is the same figure as what is reported on Printing Plus’s Income Statement.

Which types of accounts do not require closing entries?

What is the current book value of your electronics, car, and furniture? Are the value of your assets and liabilities now zero because of the start of a new year? Your car, electronics, and furniture did not suddenly lose all their value, and unfortunately, you still have outstanding debt. Therefore, these accounts still have a balance in the new year, https://personal-accounting.org/closing-entries-as-part-of-the-accounting-cycle/ because they are not closed, and the balances are carried forward from December 31 to January 1 to start the new annual accounting period. As part of the closing entry process, the net income (NI) is moved into retained earnings on the balance sheet. The assumption is that all income from the company in one year is held onto for future use.

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The trial balance shows the ending balances of all asset, liability and equity accounts remaining. 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. We do not need to show accounts with zero balances on the trial balances. Closing entries are journal entries used to empty temporary accounts at the end of a reporting period and transfer their balances into permanent accounts. Temporary accounts are used to accumulate income statement activity during a reporting period. The use of closing entries resets the temporary accounts to begin accumulating new transactions in the next period.

Close all expense and loss accounts

A net loss would decrease retained earnings so we
would do the opposite in this journal entry by debiting Retained
Earnings and crediting Income Summary. However, some corporations use a temporary clearing account for dividends declared (let’s use “Dividends”). They’d record declarations by debiting Dividends Payable and crediting Dividends. If this is the case, then this temporary dividends account needs to be closed at the end of the period to the capital account, Retained Earnings. Clear the balance of the expense accounts by debiting income summary and crediting the corresponding expenses.

This trial balance gives the opening balances for the next accounting period, and contains only balance sheet accounts including the new balance on the retained earnings account as shown below. It is permanent because it is not closed at the end of each accounting period. At the start of the new accounting period, the closing balance from the previous accounting period is brought forward and becomes the new opening balance on the account.

Now that we have closed the temporary accounts, let’s review what the post-closing ledger (T-accounts) looks like for Printing Plus. The first entry requires revenue accounts close to the Income Summary account. To get a zero balance in a revenue account, the entry will show a debit to revenues and a credit to Income Summary. Printing Plus has $140 of interest revenue and $10,100 of service revenue, each with a credit balance on the adjusted trial balance.