Which Statements Below Are True Regarding Permanent and Temporary Accounts

What is a Endmost Entry?

A closing entry is a journal entry that is made at the finish of an bookkeeping menstruum to transfer balances from a temporary account to a permanent account.

Companies use endmost entries to reset the balances of temporary accounts − accounts that show balances over a single accounting period − to zippo. By doing so, the company moves these balances into permanent accounts on the balance sheet. These permanent accounts testify a company’southward long-continuing financials.

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Temporary Accounts

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 cease of the financial year.

The income statement is a fiscal statement that is used to portray a company’south financial performance and activities over a single fiscal twelvemonth. It is for this reason that the date line in the annual income argument is written as “Year concluded.”

Below is an example of
Amazon’s 2017 annual income statement
. You can see that for the date, it is written as “Year ended December 31, YYYY”.

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As mentioned, temporary accounts in the full general ledger consist of income statement accounts such as sales or expense accounts. When the income statement is published at the end of the year, the balances of these accounts are transferred to the income summary, which is also a temporary account.

The income summary is used to transfer the balances of temporary accounts to retained earnings, which is a permanent account on the balance sheet.

Income Summary

The income summary is a temporary account used to make closing entries.

All temporary accounts must be reset to zero at the end of the accounting period. To do this, their balances are emptied into the income summary account. The income summary account then transfers the internet residue of all the temporary accounts to retained earnings, which is a permanent business relationship on the balance canvass.

Permanent Accounts

Permanent accounts are accounts that show the long-continuing fiscal position of a company. Residue sheet accounts are permanent accounts. These accounts carry frontward their balances throughout multiple accounting periods.

To empathize this meliorate, nosotros can look at an business relationship such as inventory. Below is an excerpt from Amazon’s 2017 annual residue sheet.

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The rest sail captures a snapshot of a visitor at a given bespeak in time. By looking at this remainder canvas, we can observe the post-obit:

1. On December 31, 2016, Amazon reported $11,461 million of inventory. This amount was carried forward into the commencement of 2017.
2. On December 31, 2017, Amazon posted $16,047 million of inventory.
3. Amazon increased its inventories by $4,586 million in 2017 to come up to the residue it reported on Dec 31, 2017.

By looking at it this style, nosotros can see how Inventory is a permanent account that carries forward balances through multiple accounting periods.

Example of a Closing Entry

Below are examples of closing entries that zero the temporary accounts in the income argument and transfer the balances to the permanent retained earnings business relationship. This is done using the income summary account.

1. Close Revenue Accounts

Clear the rest of the revenue account by debiting acquirement and crediting income summary.

ii. Close Expense Accounts

Clear the balance of the expense accounts by debiting income summary and crediting the corresponding expenses.

3. Close Income Summary

Close the income summary business relationship by debiting income summary and crediting retained earnings.

4. Close Dividends

Close the dividends account by debiting retained earnings and crediting dividends.

Additional Resource

Cheers for reading CFI’s closing entry guide. Corporate Finance Plant has other resources that will assistance you lot aggrandize your knowledge and advance your career! Check out the links below:

• Accounting Fundamentals
• Introduction to Corporate Finance
• Accounting Equation
• Linking the Financial Statements