Closing entries are made at the end of an accounting period to close out the nominal accounts of revenues, expenses, and drawings so that their balances do not carry over to the next period. There are four closing entry steps: 1) revenues are closed to the income summary account, 2) expenses are closed to the income summary account, 3) the income summary account is closed to capital, and 4) the drawings account is closed to capital. After the closing entries, a post-closing trial balance is prepared to check the accuracy of the ledger and ensure the nominal accounts have zero balances.

1. BAF3M Accounting
U4A5 – Closing Entries and
the Post Closing Trial Balance

2. U4A5 Closing Entries
• REAL ACCOUNTS – balances that continue into the next fiscal period
ex. Bank, trucks, accounts payable etc.
• NOMINAL ACCOUNTS – have balances that do not continue into the
next fiscal period
ONLY Drawings, Revenues, and Expenses

3. U4A5 Closing Entries
• CLOSING OUT AN ACCOUNT – means to make it have no balance.
Nominal accounts are closed out at the end of the fiscal period.
• INCOME SUMMARY ACCOUNT – summarizes the revenues and
expenses of the period. Represents either the net income or net loss
for the fiscal period

4. U4A5 Closing Entries
WHY DO WE CLOSE OUT ACCOUNTS? Closing
these accounts allows us to plainly observe the
previous year's effect on our revenue, expense,
and drawings accounts. You can well imagine
that if we did not close these accounts, their
balances would build to outrageous amounts.

5. HOW DO WE DO THIS?
The Order in Which we Close Out Accounts
1. Close out the revenue account(s) to the Income
Summary account (R  I)
2. Close out the expense account(s) to the Income
Summary account (E  I)
3. Close out the Income Summary account to the
Capital account (I  C)
4. Close out the Drawing account to the Capital
account (D  C)
U4A5 Closing Entries

6. Closing Entries Steps Summarized
Remember “REID”
R  I (Revenue closed to Income Summary)
E  I (Expenses closed to Income Summary)
I  C (Income Summary closed to Capital)
D  C (Drawings closed to Capital)

7. • Closing Entry #1: Close out the revenue account(s)
to the Income Summary account
Because revenue is a CR balance account, a DR entry
is needed to close it off … ie make it’s balance = $0.
U4A5 Closing Entries

8. • Closing Entry #2: Close out the expense account(s) to
the Income Summary account
Because expenses are a DR balance account, a CR entry
is needed to close them off
U4A5 Closing Entries

9. • Closing Entry #3: Close out the Income Summary
account to the Capital account
If the Income Summary account has a CR balance, then a DR entry
is needed to close it. (profit  capital increases)
If the Income Summary account has a DR balance, then a CR entry
is needed to close it. (loss  capital decreases)
This step is contingent on the results of the first two steps – what
you DR and CR changes based on whether you have a net income
situation or a net loss situation
U4A5 Closing Entries

10. • Closing Entry #4: Close out the Drawing account to
the Capital account
Because Drawings is a DR balance account, a CR entry is
needed to close it
U4A5 Closing Entries

11. • Post-Closing Trial Balance (PCTB)
• Checks the accuracy of the ledger after the adjusting and closing
entries have been done
• Because now D, R, and E accounts are all zero, the PCTB will only
have three types of accounts: A, L and C.
• Keep in mind that Capital now shows the effect of the nominal (D,
R, E) accounts had during the period. (look back at U2A4 – Capital
Section of a Balance Sheet, and the way you did the OE section on
your Classified Balance Sheet in U4A4)
U4A5 Closing Entries