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Example Closing Process Explanation

The first part is the date of declaration, which creates the obligation or liability to pay the dividend. The second part is the date of record that determines who receives the dividends, and the third part is the date of payment, which is the date that payments are made. 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.

This is closed by doing the opposite – debit the capital account (decreasing the capital balance) and credit Income Summary. Notice that the balances in interest revenue and service revenue are now zero and are ready to accumulate revenues in the next period. The Income Summary account has a credit balance of $10,240 (the revenue sum). Our discussion here begins with journalizing and posting the closing entries (Figure 5.2). 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.

• For our purposes, assume that we are closing the books at the end of each month unless otherwise noted.
• There are basically three types of temporary accounts, namely revenues, expenses, and income summary.
• In summary, the accountant resets the temporary accounts to zero by transferring the balances to permanent accounts.
• Balances from temporary accounts are shifted to the income summary account first to leave an audit trail for accountants to follow.

The company’s temporary account, in which the revenues and expenses were transferred, is called the income summary. The net income is reflected when the other two accounts are closed. In a partnership, separate entries are made to close each partner’s drawing account to his or her own capital account. If a corporation has more than one class of stock and uses dividend accounts to record dividend payments to investors, it usually uses a separate dividend account for each class. If this is the case, the corporation’s accounting department makes a compound entry to close each dividend account to the retained earnings account. In partnerships, a compound entry transfers each partner’s share of net income or loss to their own capital account.

Which accounts get closed at the end of a fiscal year?

Since the temporary accounts are closed at the end of each fiscal year, they will begin the new fiscal year with zero balances. Temporary (nominal) accounts are accounts that are closed at the end of each accounting period, and include income statement, dividends, and income summary accounts. These accounts are temporary because they keep their balances during the current accounting period and are set back to zero when the period ends.

The net amount of the balances shifted constitutes the gain or loss that the company earned during the period. For instance, a debit entry of $50,000 should be made in the revenue account if the total income recorded is $50,000. A corresponding credit of $50,000 is then made in the income summary account to keep the entries in balance. A temporary account, as mentioned above, is an account that needs to be closed at the end of an accounting period.

• All accounts can be classified as either permanent (real) or temporary (nominal) (Figure 5.3).
• 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.
• 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.
• Closing entries, also called closing journal entries, are entries made at the end of an accounting period to zero out all temporary accounts and transfer their balances to permanent accounts.
• The second entry requires expense accounts close to the Income Summary account.
• If the temporary account was not closed, the total revenues seen would be $900,000.

Revenue and expense accounts are closed to Income Summary, and Income Summary and Dividends are closed to the permanent account, Retained Earnings. 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 how to calculate the debt ratio using the equity multiplier will maintain a balance. In summary, the accountant resets the temporary accounts to zero by transferring the balances to permanent accounts. Closing entries, also called closing journal entries, are entries made at the end of an accounting period to zero out all temporary accounts and transfer their balances to permanent accounts.

So the accountant’s next step is to deduct $5,000 from the drawing account and credit the same amount to the capital account. An equal amount is then recorded as a debit to the income summary account. A temporary account closes at the end of each accounting period and has no balance when a new period begins. To fully understand the accounting cycle, it’s important to have a solid understanding of the basic accounting principles. You need to know about revenue recognition (when a company can record sales revenue), the matching principle (matching expenses to revenues), and the accrual principle. And so, the amounts in one accounting period should be closed so that they won’t get mixed with those in the next period.

Temporary Account

If the temporary account was not closed, the total revenues seen would be $900,000. Example- Salary paid 2,00,000 to the employees for the previous year gets closed in the previous accounting period itself and their balances are not carried forward in the next accounting year. Remember that all revenue, sales, income, and gain accounts are closed in this entry. To close expenses, we simply credit the expense accounts and debit Income Summary.

Introduction to the Closing Entries

Prepare the closing entries for Frasker Corp. using the adjusted trial balance provided. Companies are required to close their books at the end of each fiscal year so that they can prepare their annual financial statements and tax returns. In this chapter, we complete the final steps (steps 8 and 9) of the accounting cycle, the closing process. This is an optional step in the accounting cycle that you will learn about in future courses. Steps 1 through 4 were covered in Analyzing and Recording Transactions and Steps 5 through 7 were covered in The Adjustment Process. The identical procedure is followed when moving money from the cost accounts to the income summary.

They consist of spending accounts, income statements, and income summary accounts. In the example above, the income summary shows a net income of $33,550 from total revenues of $50,000 minus total expenses of $16,450. If an accounting software package is being utilized to record accounting transactions, this shifting to the retained earnings account will take place automatically. Now for this step, we need to get the balance of the Income Summary account. In step 1, we credited it for $9,850 and debited it in step 2 for $8,790. The income statement summarizes your income, as does income summary.

AccountingTools

They zero-out the balances of temporary accounts during the current period to come up with fresh slates for the transactions in the next period. 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. The closing entry will credit Supplies Expense, Depreciation Expense–Equipment, Salaries Expense, and Utility Expense, and debit Income Summary.

Step 3: Close Income Summary to the appropriate capital account

If the bank balance increased by 2,00,000, then at the end of the accounting year Cash at Bank would become 4,50,000. This amount will be again c/f onto the next accounting period and the cycle keeps going. The Income Summary balance is ultimately closed to the capital account. Notice that the balance of the Income Summary account is actually the net income for the period.

This resets the income accounts to zero and prepares them for the next year. In essence, we are updating the capital balance and resetting all temporary account balances. Income and expenses are closed to a temporary clearing account, usually Income Summary. Afterwards, withdrawal or dividend accounts are also closed to the capital account.

Make the Closing Entries

Start with a free account to explore 20+ always-free courses and hundreds of finance templates and cheat sheets. The T-account summary for Printing Plus after closing entries are journalized is presented in Figure 5.7. Notice that the Income Summary account is now zero and is ready for use in the next period. The Retained Earnings account balance is currently a credit of $4,665. 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.