What is a closing journal entry?
Sophia Koch
Updated on January 05, 2026
A closing entry is a journal entry made at the end of the accounting period. It involves shifting data from temporary accounts on the income statement to permanent accounts on the balance sheet. All income statement balances are eventually transferred to retained earnings.
What is the journal entry for wages?
Debit the wages, salaries, and company payroll taxes you paid. This will increase your expenses for the period. When you record payroll, you generally debit Gross Wage Expense and credit all of the liability accounts.
How do you write a closing journal entry?
Four Steps in Preparing Closing Entries
- Close all income accounts to Income Summary.
- Close all expense accounts to Income Summary.
- Close Income Summary to the appropriate capital account. Owner’s capital account for sole proprietorship.
- Close withdrawals/distributions to the appropriate capital account.
What are closing entries give example?
Closing entries are those journal entries made in a manual accounting system at the end of an accounting period to shift the balances in temporary accounts to permanent accounts. Examples of temporary accounts are the revenue, expense, and dividends paid accounts.
Which account does not require a closing entry?
Only revenue, expense, and dividend accounts are closed—not asset, liability, Common Stock, or Retained Earnings accounts. The four basic steps in the closing process are: Closing the revenue accounts—transferring the credit balances in the revenue accounts to a clearing account called Income Summary.
What are the steps to closing entries?
We need to do the closing entries to make them match and zero out the temporary accounts.
- Step 1: Close Revenue accounts. Close means to make the balance zero.
- Step 2: Close Expense accounts.
- Step 3: Close Income Summary account.
- Step 4: Close Dividends (or withdrawals) account.
What accounts are not affected by closing entries?
What accounts are affected by closing entries? What accounts are not affected? Revenues, Expenses, dividends, and income summary accounts were affected. Assets, liabilities, and retained earnings are not affected.
What are temporary accounts examples?
Examples of Temporary Accounts
- Revenue accounts.
- Expense accounts (such as the cost of goods sold, compensation expense, and supplies expense accounts)
- Gain and loss accounts (such as the loss on assets sold account)
- Income summary account.
What are the 4 journal entries used in the closing process?
Recording closing entries: There are four closing entries; closing revenues to income summary, closing expenses to income summary, closing income summary to retained earnings, and close dividends to retained earnings.
What is the journal entry for closing net income?
Closing the net income to retained earnings If the company makes a profit during the year, it can make the closing entry for net income by debiting the income summary account and crediting the retained earnings account.
What happens at the end of a closing journal entry?
The income summary account is in itself a temporary account and an additional closing journal entry is made to zero the account at the end of the accounting period, and transfer the balance (the net income for the period) to the retained earnings account as before.
What is the journal entry of paid wages?
Journal Entry For Paid Wages. Wages is a nominal account and because this is an expense of Business, as such, Wages account will be debited according to the rule of “Debit all expenses”. Cash account will be credited, as cash is going out of the business.
When do you post closing entries in general ledger?
A closing entry is a journal entry made at the end of accounting periods that involves shifting data from temporary accounts on the income statement to permanent accounts on the balance sheet. Temporary accounts include revenue, expenses, and dividends and must be closed at the end of the accounting year.
What makes a closing entry on an income statement?
Key Takeaways: 1 A closing entry is a journal entry made at the end of the accounting period. 2 It involves shiftingdata from temporary accounts on the income statement to permanent accounts on the balance sheet. 3 All income statement balances are eventually transferred to retained earnings.