Q. Explain about closing process?
Expense, revenue and dividends accounts are nominal (temporary) accounts that are merely sub classifications of a real (permanent) account Retained Earnings. You as well learned that we prepare financial statements for certain accounting periods. The closing process transfers (a) the balances in the revenue and expense accounts to a clearing account called Income Summary and after that to Retained Earnings and (b) the balance in the Dividends account to the Retained Earnings account. The closing process reduces expense, revenue and Dividends account balances to zero thus they are ready to receive data for the next accounting period. Accountants may perform the closing process monthly or annually.