The Accounting Cycle
From the accounting equation to the post-closing trial balance — the on-ramp to everything else.
Every later chapter assumes you can do what this one teaches: turn a business event into a journal entry, carry it through the ledger, and prove the books still balance. It starts with the accounting equation and why every transaction must keep it in balance, then debits and credits and the source documents that trigger an entry. You record transactions in the journal, post them to ledger accounts and extract a trial balance — learning along the way what an agreeing trial balance does and does not prove. The second half runs the rest of the cycle: the adjusting entries that bring the accounts up to date, the closing entries that reset revenue and expenses for the next period, and the step from a trial balance to financial statements. It closes with full-cycle cases that take one set of transactions all the way through. An optional final section repeats the trial balance with US GAAP account titles.
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01Foundations & the Accounting Equation
what the equation actually says, and why every transaction — an investment, a purchase on credit, a sale — keeps it in balance in its own way.
02Debits, Credits & Source Documents
the rules for which side a transaction hits, and the paper trail — invoices, transfers, remittance advices — that every entry starts from.
03Recording Transactions
The Journal: turning a source document into a journal entry, the first formal record in the cycle.
04Posting to the Ledger
moving journal entries into individual T-accounts and keeping a running balance.
05The Trial Balance
proving the ledger still balances, and what it does (and doesn't) actually prove.
06Adjusting Entries & the Adjusted Trial Balance
recognising revenue and expenses in the right period before the statements are drawn up — the next chapter works this in depth.
07Closing Entries & the Post-Closing Trial Balance
resetting temporary accounts to zero and rolling the result into retained earnings.
08From Trial Balance to Financial Statements
where all the work in this chapter actually ends up.
09Integrated Full-Cycle Cases
the whole cycle, start to finish, in one scenario each.
10The Trial Balance under US GAAPOptional · US GAAP
for US GAAP students — the same trial-balance exercise with US GAAP account titles. IFRS students can skip this section.