Which of the following accounts are closed at the end of the accounting cycle?

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The Closing Process is a step in the accounting cycle that occurs at the end of the accounting period, after the financial statements are completed. This serves to get everything ready for the next year. 

In order to understand this, you need to know the difference between permanent and temporary accounts. 

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What is a Permanent Account? 

Permanent accounts, also known as balance sheet accounts, are the accounts that report on activities related to one or more future accounting periods - such as cash. At the end of the accounting period it doesn't involuntarily go down to zero (by itself). The ending balance carries over to the next year. They are accounts that pertain to either assets, liabilities, or owner's equity.  Another example would be a payables account. 

What is a Temporary Account?

Temporary accounts, also known as income statement accounts, are the accounts related to one accounting period. These are accounts that close out at the end of the accounting period. They do not carry over to the next year. These accounts tend to have a specific or special purpose. Once the purpose for the account is served, they are erased. For example, an account to accrue commission payments to sales people may be closed once the commission are paid. Erasing the account means that we won't claim them for more than one period. They are assets that pertain to revenues, expenses, and dividends ("r-e-d accounts").

Temporary accounts are opened at the beginning of the period and used to record transactions and events for that period. Then they're closed at the end of the period. Where are they closed to? 

What is the Closing Process?

How does a Closing Entry Work? 

Oftentimes, a closing entry is done manually, however, there are accounting methods, with the aid of technological advancement that supports a computerized way of shifting balances from temporary accounts into permanent ones. A closing entry entails resetting the balances of temporary accounts and permanent accounts, in which the balance of temporary accounts is zero and the balance of the permanent accounts increase. The income summary is important in a closing entry, this is the summary used in the aggregation of all income accounts. It is, however, important to note that the account income summary does not appear on financial statements, rather, it is a summary used in the closing process/entry.

At the end of a company's fiscal year, all temporary accounts should be closed. Temporary accounts accumulate balances for a single fiscal year and are then emptied. Conversely, permanent accounts accumulate balances on an ongoing basis through many fiscal years, and so are not closed at the end of the fiscal year.

At the end of the fiscal year, closing entries are used to shift the entire balance in every temporary account into retained earnings, which is a permanent account. The net amount of the balances shifted constitutes the gain or loss that the company earned during the period.

Once the year-end processing has been completed, all of the temporary accounts have been emptied and therefore "closed" for the current fiscal year. A flag in the accounting software is then set to close down the old fiscal year, which means that no one can enter transactions during that time period. Another flag can be set to open the next fiscal year, at which point the same temporary accounts are opened, now with zero balances, and are used to begin accumulating transactional information for the next fiscal year.

Thus, the only accounts closed at year end are temporary accounts. Permanent accounts remain open at all times.

Types of Temporary Accounts

The most common types of temporary accounts are for revenue, expenses, gains, and losses - essentially any account that appears in the income statement. In addition, the income summary account, which is an account used to summarize temporary account balances before shifting the net balance elsewhere, is also a temporary account. Examples of temporary accounts are revenue, cost of goods sold, rent expense, utilities expense, compensation expense, and benefits expense.

Types of Permanent Accounts

Permanent accounts are those that appear on the balance sheet, such as asset, liability, and equity accounts. Examples of permanent accounts are cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable, fixed assets, accounts payable, and common stock.

What is closed at the end of the accounting period?

Which of the following accounts is closed at the end of the accounting cycle quizlet?

Which of the following accounts is not closed at the end of an accounting cycle?

Which accounts are closed accounting?