closing entries definition and meaning

Remember that net income is equal to all income minus all expenses. 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. The third entry requires Income Summary to close to the Retained Earnings account.

QuickBooks creates automatic adjustments in preparation for the coming year. Retained earnings are those earnings not distributed to shareholders as dividends, but retained for further investment, often in advertising, sales, production, and equipment. Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as a university accounting instructor, accountant, and consultant for more than 25 years. He is the sole author of all the materials on AccountingCoach.com. The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters. Give the software a try out right away, by signing up for our free trial.

Both closing entries are acceptable and both result in the same outcome. All temporary accounts eventually get closed to retained earnings and are presented on the balance sheet. Closing all temporary accounts to the retained earnings account is faster than using the income summary account method because it saves a step. There is no need to close temporary accounts to another temporary account (income summary account) in order to then close that again. The end result is equally accurate, with temporary accounts closed to the retained earnings account for presentation in the company’s balance sheet. All revenue accounts are first transferred to the income summary.

As an another example, you should shift any balance in the dividends paid account to the retained earnings account, which reduces the balance in the retained earnings account. The $10,000 of revenue generated through the accounting period will be shifted to the income summary account. The fourth entry requires Dividends to close to the Retained Earnings account. Remember from your past studies that dividends are not expenses, such as salaries paid to your employees or staff. Instead, declaring and paying dividends is a method utilized by corporations to return part of the profits generated by the company to the owners of the company—in this case, its shareholders. The eighth step in the accounting cycle is preparing closing entries, which includes journalizing and posting the entries to the ledger.

Permanent and Temporary Accounts

Keep in mind, however, that this account is only purposeful for closing the books, and thus, it is not recorded into any accounting reports and has a zero balance at the end of the closing process. Thus, the income summary temporarily holds only revenue and expense balances. 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. We’ll use a company called MacroAuto that creates and installs specialized exhaust systems for race cars. Prepare the closing entries for Frasker Corp. using the adjusted
trial balance provided.

• Adjusting entries are used to modify accounts so that they’re in compliance with the accrual concept of recording income and expenses.
• If this is the case, the corporation’s accounting department makes a compound entry to close each dividend account to the retained earnings account.
• For corporations, Income Summary is closed entirely to “Retained Earnings”.
• The Printing Plus adjusted trial balance for January 31, 2019, is presented in Figure 5.4.

In this way, the balances are emptied into the income summary account. The income summary account then transfers the net balance of all the temporary accounts to retained earnings, which is a permanent account on the balance sheet. Temporary (nominal) accounts are accounts that
are closed at the end of each accounting period, and include income
statement, dividends, and income summary accounts.

This is closed by doing the opposite – debit the capital account (decreasing the capital balance) and credit Income Summary. The fourth entry requires Dividends to close to the Retained
Earnings account. Remember from your past studies that dividends
are not expenses, such as salaries paid to your employees or staff.

What Is a Closing Entry?

By doing so, the company moves these balances into permanent accounts on the balance sheet. These permanent accounts show a company’s long-standing financials. The statement of retained earnings shows the period-ending
retained earnings after the closing entries have been posted.

Closing Entries: Definition, Types, and Examples

The credit to income summary should equal the total revenue from the income statement. 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. As mentioned, temporary accounts in the general ledger consist of income statement accounts such as sales or expense accounts.

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 how much is too much to pay for tax returns across periods, particularly with income. It also helps the company keep thorough records of account balances affecting retained earnings. Revenue, expense, and dividend accounts affect retained earnings and are closed so they can accumulate new balances in the next period, which is an application of the time period assumption.

1: Describe and Prepare Closing Entries for a Business

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. Close the income summary account by debiting income summary and crediting retained earnings. Temporary accounts are accounts in the general ledger that are used to accumulate transactions over a single accounting period. The balances of these accounts are eventually used to construct the income statement at the end of the fiscal year.

Accounting Principles I

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.

The Income Summary account has a credit balance of $10,240 (the revenue sum). 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. What are your total expenses for rent, electricity, cable and internet, gas, and food for the current year? You have also not incurred any expenses yet for rent, electricity, cable, internet, gas or food.