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Accounting Cycle

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Accounting Cycle

Accounting Cycle
For all types of businesses, transactions take place. Transactions vary from such things as sales, expenses, wages, purchases, and receivables. These transactions are maintained in various journals and ledgers and tell the financial story of the business. The process of maintaining this financial story is called the Accounting Cycle.
Evaluation
There are ten steps involved in completing the accounting cycle. They are as follows: “(1) Transactions are analyzed and recorded in the journal. (2) Transactions are posted to the ledger. (3) An unadjusted trial balance is prepared. (4) Adjustment data are assembled and analyzed. (5) An optional end-of-period spreadsheet is prepared. (6) Adjusting entries are journalized and posted to the ledger. (7) An adjusted trial balance is prepared. (8) Financial statements are prepared. (9) Closing entries and journalized and posted to the leger. (10) A post-closing trial balance is prepared.” (Warren, Reeve, & Duchac (2012) pg. 162) The accounting cycle begins with analyzing and recording transactions. The bookkeeper, for example, would review the invoices, purchase orders, bank statements, etc. After the transactions have been analyzed they are now ready to be posted to the journal using the double-entry accounting system. The double-entry accounting system means that the transactions are recorded in at least two or more accounts so that the debits and credits equal.
After the transactions are recorded in the journal they are now ready to be posted to the ledger. A ledger is a book which contains the businesses individual accounts in it. Posting is simply transferring the data from the journal to the proper accounts in the ledger.
To verify all the debits and credits equal after posting, an unadjusted trial balance is prepared. This is a list of all

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