Meaning of Accounting Cycle

Meaning of Accounting Cycle

An accounting cycle is a complete sequence of accounting process, that begins with   the recording of business transactions  and ends with the preparation of final accounts.

When a businessman starts his business activities, he records the day-to-day transactions in the Journal. From the journal the transactions move further to the ledger where accounts are written up. Here, the combined effect of debit and credit pertaining to each account is arrived at in the form of balances.


To prove the accuracy of the work done, these balances are transferred to a statement called trial balance. Preparation of trading and profit and loss account is the next step. The balancing of profit
and loss account gives the net result of the business transactions.To know the financial position of the business concern balance sheet is prepared at the end.

These transactions which have completed the current accounting year, once again come to the starting point – the journal – and they move with new transactions of the next year. Thus, this cyclic
movement of the transactions through the books of accounts (accounting cycle) is a continuou sprocess.

 Accounting cycle is often described as a process that includes the following steps: identifying, collecting and analyzing documents and transactions, recording the transactions in journals, posting the journalized amounts to accounts in the general and subsidiary ledgers, preparing an unadjusted trial balance, perhaps preparing a worksheet, determining and recording adjusting entries, preparing an adjusted trial balance, preparing the financial statements, recording and posting closing entries, preparing a post-closing trial balance, and perhaps recording reversing entries.

Cycle and steps seem to be a carryover from the days of manual bookkeeping and accounting when transactions were first written into journals. In a separate step the amounts in the journal were posted to accounts. At the end of each month, the remaining steps had to take place in order to get the monthly, manually-prepared financial statements.

Today, most companies use accounting software that processes many of these steps simultaneously. The speed and accuracy of the software reduces the accountant's need for a worksheet containing the unadjusted trial balance, adjusting entries, and the adjusted trial balance. The accountant can enter the adjusting entries into the software and can obtain the complete financial statements by simply selecting the reports from a menu. After reviewing the financial statements, the accountant can make additional adjustments and almost immediately obtain the revised reports. The software will also prepare, record, and post the closing entries.