Closing the Accounts Accounting Description and Examples

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Closing the Accounts

At the end of the period, temporary or nominal accounts are closed; these include expense, revenue, and owner withdrawing accounts. This process zeros out the account balances so that the balance of the transactions in each account reflects only the transactions of a particular period. This is normally done only at the end of the year.

To facilitate closing, a clearing account called Income Summary is used. The Income Summary account is used only momentarily; revenue and expensed are closed into it and then that balance is immediately closed out to Owner's Equity (or Retained Earnings). The four steps in closing the accounts are:

Close revenue accounts by debiting each for its credit balance and crediting Income Summary.
Close expense accounts by crediting each for its debit balance and debiting Income Summary.
Income Summary is closed into the Capital account by debiting (for a net income) or crediting (for a net loss) the balance.
Close the Withdrawals account by crediting it by its balance and debiting the Capital account.

In the example of closing journal entries below, assume that revenue, expense, and owner equity accounts have the following balances.

Account	Balance	Account	Balance
Expenses		Revenue
Rent Expense	1,400	Sales Revenue	6,000
Salary Expense	1,200	Owner's Equity
Office Supplies Expense	400	Capital Account	9,000
Utilities Expense	320	Withdrawals	1,000

The entries below depict a net income for the period. Read below how the entries differ for a net loss.

General Journal				Page: 1
Date		Account Titles/Explanation	Ref	Debit	Credit
20XX Jan	31 (1)	Sales Revenue Income Summary *To close revenue account*		6000	6000
	31 (2)	Income Summary Rent Expense Salary Expense Office Supplies Expense Utilities Expense *To close expense accounts*		3320	1400 1200 400 320
	31 (3)	Income Summary Owner, Capital *To close net income to Capital*		2680	2680
	31 (4)	Owner, Capital Owner, Withdrawals *To close drawing account to Capital*		1000	1000

Here is how the transactions above effect the Income Summary and Capital accounts. The number in parenthesis indicates which of the transactions results in the account's entry:

Income Summary

(2) 3320

(3) 2680

(1) 6000

Owner's Equity

(4) 1000

Bal 9000

(3) 2680

When the revenue and expense accounts are closed to Income Summary and a credit balance exists, a net income is the result. The opposite is true for a net loss; the Income Summary account has a debit balance. In the case of a net loss, the third entry above would contain a debit to Owner's Capital and a credit to Income Summary.

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