Closing Entry: What It Is and How to Record One

Examples of accounts not affected by closing entries include asset, liability, and equity accounts. You need to create closing journal entries by debiting and crediting the right accounts. Use the chart below to determine which accounts the formula for net sales in a restaurant are decreased by debits and which are decreased by credits. For example, if your accounting periods last one month, use month-end closing entries. A closing entry is a journal entry made at the end of an accounting period.

Closing Journal Entries: Definition, Process & Example

These accounts carry forward their balances throughout multiple accounting periods. It’s not reported on any financial statements because it’s only used during the closing process and the account balance is zero at the end of the closing process. The net income (NI) is moved into retained earnings on the balance sheet as part of the closing entry process. The assumption is that all income from the company in one year is held for future use.

Closing Entries

All income and expense accounts, such as revenues, cost of sales, depreciation, gains, and losses, that you’ll find in the income statement are temporary 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. In other words, the temporary accounts are closed or reset at the end of the year. This transaction increases your capital account and zeros out the income summary account.

Closing entries Closing procedure

The owner’s drawing account will be zero and the owner’s drawing account will be closed by crediting the owner’s drawing account and debiting the capital account. If there is a net loss, the income summary account is also closed, with the income summary account being credited and the capital account being debited. If there is a net profit, the balance of the income summary account is also zeroed by debiting the income summary account and crediting the capital account. If this balance appears on the debit side, it will denote a profit for the company.

Example of Where Closing Entries Are

1. The purpose of closing entries is to prepare the temporary accounts for the next accounting period.
2. Retained earnings are defined as a portion of a business’s profits that isn’t paid out to shareholders but is rather reserved to meet ongoing expenses of operation.
3. Now that we have closed the temporary accounts, let’s review what the post-closing ledger (T-accounts) looks like for Printing Plus.
4. The primary objective of an end journal entry is to set the temporary account balance to zero.
5. Below are examples of closing entries that zero the temporary accounts in the income statement and transfer the balances to the permanent retained earnings account.

Accountants may perform the closing process monthly or annually. The closing entries are the journal entry form of the Statement of Retained Earnings. Closing entries prepare a company for the next accounting period by clearing any outstanding balances in certain accounts that should not transfer over to the next period. Closing, or clearing the balances, means returning the account to a zero balance. Having a zero balance in these accounts is important so a company can compare performance across periods, particularly with income. It also helps the company keep thorough records of account balances affecting retained earnings.

In summary, the closing process only applies to temporary accounts found in the income statement. Closing Entries are journal entries that are recorded for the purpose of closing all temporary accounts and transferring their balances to permanent accounts. For this reason, these types of accounts are called temporary or nominal accounts. When an accountant closes an account, the account balance returns to zero. Companies can use end journal entries in several steps to perform the transfer. Most companies create a temporary account in between the transfer process.

It’s easier to measure and track revenues and expenses during the period when the accounts start with a clean slate. This ensures that the income earned and expenses incurred so far pertains only to that period and does not include cumulative data from previous periods. A business will use closing entries in order to reset the balance of temporary accounts to zero. Permanent (real) accounts are accounts that transfer balances to the next period and include balance sheet accounts, such as assets, liabilities, and stockholders’ equity. These accounts will not be set back to zero at the beginning of the next period; they will keep their balances. The next day, January 1, 2019, you get ready for work, but before you go to the office, you decide to review your financials for 2019.

The expense accounts and withdrawal account will now also be zero. As the drawings account is a contra equity account and not an expense account, it is closed to the capital account and not the income summary or retained earnings account. At this point, companies will have transferred all revenues and expenses to retained earnings. After these entries, this account will remain inactive until the next period ends.

It’s vital in business to keep a detailed record of your accounts. Answer the following questions on closing entries and rate your confidence to check your answer. We have completed the first two columns and now we have the final https://www.business-accounting.net/ column which represents the closing (or archive) process. The third entry requires Income Summary to close to the Retained Earnings account. To get a zero balance in the Income Summary account, there are guidelines to consider.

After putting all temporary accounts in the income summary, we need to ultimately close the income summary account to the capital account. Note that the balance of the income summary account should be equal to the current period’s net income. The income summary account is an intermediary between revenues and expenses, and the Retained Earnings 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. All expense accounts are then closed to the income summary account by crediting the expense accounts and debiting income summary. In each temporary account, closing entries also result in a zero balance. The temporary accounts are now ready to gather data for the next accounting period, which will be distinct from the data from previous periods. Closing entries are journal entries required to close all nominal or temporary accounts at the end of a financial or accounting period or year.