11/17/2013
The Accounting Cycle
AC114

Accounting has three basic activities; it identifies, records, and communicates the numbers to the interested parties of the company. The internal users who rely on accounting information are the people who plan, organize, and run the business. The most common external users that rely on the accounting information are investors and creditors, because neither of the two would invest into a business with inaccurate accounting information. To ensure accuracy we have to follow the accounting cycle which has nine steps.
The first step is to analyze the business transactions because it identifies the economic events relevant to its business. When we analyze we figure out whether a transaction is an asset, liability, or owner’s equity. Next we would journalize the transaction data into a journal. This process contributes to the recording process of the accounting cycle because it discloses the effects of a transaction, provides a chronological order, and helps prevent or locate errors of a transaction. When we journalize we would separate each transaction by date, amount, and description. Journalizing means we would post the information to a general ledger. The ledger is helpful because it takes all the information about changes in specific account balances and keeps it in one place. The ledger would provide the balance of each account and arranged in sequence as it would show on the financial statement. The accounts are numbered for easier classification and the order would go as assets, liabilities, owner’s capital, owner’s drawing, revenue, and expenses.
After the ledger account is created we would then prepare a trial balance. A trial balance gives you a list of balances at a time determined by the company. Usually the trial balance is created at the end of an accounting period. The trial balance would list all the debit and