1.8: Wrap up

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To this point, you have been introduced to basic concepts that pertain to business and to accounting. You have learned that businesses experience financial transactions that are recorded by selecting accounts and amounts to represent these events and entering them in the journal in chronological order. Journal entries are then copied to the ledgers to reorganize the same information by account. One of the key aspects of the process is maintaining current running balances in all of the ledger accounts. Account balances are then transferred to the income statement, retained earnings statement, and balance sheet for a professional, well-structured summary presentation that is meaningful to those reading the reports. Finally, the temporary revenue, expense, and dividends accounts are closed to Retained Earnings at the end of the accounting period to set their balances back to zero so that the cycle can begin again.