An accounting entry that a company makes at the end of each accounting period to start the next accounting period with a zero balance in its temporary accounts.

Closing entry denotes the closing of temporary accounts (revenues, expenses, gains, losses, and dividends) into a stockholders' equity account, retained earnings, at the end of the period. This process is facilitated by the introduction of a temporary account created solely for the closing process this account is known as the income summary account and is used to collect or summarize all of the revenues, expenses , gains, and losses of the firm in a single account that is then, in turn, closed to the retained earnings account.