Temporary accounts definition including break down of areas in the definition. Analyzing the definition of key term often provides more insight about concepts. Temporary accounts entries can be defined as: Accounts used to record revenues, expenses, and withdrawals (dividends for a corporation); they are closed at the end of each period; also called normal accounts. Temporary accounts can be contrasted to permanent accounts, temporary account being closed out to zero at the end of the closing process, permanent account not being closed out at the end of the accounting process. The fact that temporary accounts are closed to zero each accounting cycle is the reason temporary account are called temporary, a post closing trail balance often not showing the temporary accounts because they have a zero balance at this point. Temporary accounts include income statement account and draw or dividends.
