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Course 169 · Money course 40

Close a Month with Accrual Adjustments

Produce a fictional month-end adjustment packet with accruals, prepayments, depreciation, corrected trial balance and reconciled income statement. Use complete original records and independently checked changed-input practice.

Before you start

Recommended preparation: Bookkeeping for Small Organizations.

Bookkeeping for Small Organizations See everything you’ll need

Free download · Original practice data · No external account required. Download the starter pack

What you’ll leave with

A fictional month-end adjustment packet with accruals, prepayments, depreciation, corrected trial balance and reconciled income statement.

Start course Start without an account. Sign in to save lesson progress across devices.

Your project

Start with the practice files. Build your project one lesson at a time.

Practice files are free without an account. Sign in to save your project record in My Proof: a description, checklist, and optional work link. Keep the original files in your own app or notebook; saving a project record does not upload them.

  1. Get your materialsDownload practice filesSupplied practice cases, a blank working record, complete lesson instructions, and annotated worked examples.
  2. Make your projectView the project checklist Work in your own notebook, document, or software. Use the supplied practice examples when you prefer.
  3. Keep a private recordSave a project record Sign in to save a description and checklist, then return to update them.
Course handbook

Know the route before you begin.

Here’s what you’ll need and what you’ll make. You can return to this guide during any lesson.

Who this is for

Learners ages 14+ and adults studying future or current business decisions through fictional cases; no financial transaction is required.

Prepare before lesson one
  • Recommended preparation: Bookkeeping for Small Organizations.
  • Use paper or a local spreadsheet and calculator. Supplied records contain no real identities or accounts.
  • Preserve original financial files in your own tool; My Proof stores a project description, checklist and optional work link.
Your final project

Finish with proof you can use.

A fictional month-end adjustment packet with accruals, prepayments, depreciation, corrected trial balance and reconciled income statement.

Save a project record in My Proof
See project checklist and review criteria

Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.

What to include

  • An earned-revenue adjustment journal and posted balances.
  • An unpaid-wage accrual and later-settlement distinction.
  • A prepaid-rent release schedule and asset/expense posting.
  • A depreciation assumption schedule and gross/contra/net bridge.
  • A posted adjustment journal and complete adjusted trial balance.
  • An adjusted income statement, balance-sheet bridge and changed-earned-revenue check.

Review and revise

Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.

  • Cutoff: each adjustment has period evidence.
  • Journal: debit/credit accounts and amounts are correct.
  • Posting: adjusted balances and totals reconcile.
  • Statements: profit and net assets obey the accounting equation.
Three ideas to help you along the way
Three useful ideas

The rules behind the steps.

01

Follow the earning period

Cash timing and performance can differ.

02

Post before reporting

Every journal entry has a matching ledger effect.

03

Check beyond equality

Balanced arithmetic needs source and account evidence.

What do these words mean?
Key words

Key terms worth knowing.

Accrual
Recognize revenue earned and expense incurred in the period.
Deferral
Advance amount recognized as benefit is used or service earned.
Contra-asset
Opposite-balance account reducing an asset’s net amount.
Adjusted trial balance
Posted period-end nonzero ledger balances.
Cutoff
Boundary deciding the relevant reporting period.
Your route

6 lessons.
One useful project.

Work in order the first time. Each lesson makes something the next lesson can use.

  1. 1
    Up next

    Separate earned from received

    Record earned advance service and unbilled service in the correct period.

  2. 2
    12 min

    Accrue an unpaid expense

    Recognize incurred wages and a payable without duplicating cash payment.

  3. 3
    12 min

    Release a prepaid expense

    Allocate the used portion of the prepaid rent and retain the future benefit as an asset.

  4. 4
    12 min

    Allocate depreciation

    Calculate straight-line period allocation and record the contra-asset separately.

  5. 5
    22 min

    Post balanced adjustments

    Post every earned/expense adjustment and build the complete adjusted trial balance.

  6. 6
    24 min

    Produce a checked adjusted close

    Build income and balance-sheet identities from the adjusted trial balance.

Use the tools

Tools to help you practice.

See all tools
ZIP · practice files

Close a Month with Accrual Adjustments practice files

Supplied practice cases, a blank working record, complete lesson instructions, and annotated worked examples.

Text worksheet

Your course project worksheet

A downloadable text worksheet with each lesson’s working output, space for your answers, and the shared final-project checklist. Save your own copy.

Source transparency

Sources and further study.

Explore the references behind the lessons and take your learning further. Source notes explain access and reuse.

Open Stax: Periods and accrual accounting
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Read earned/incurred versus received/paid and period boundary; no current tax-basis claim inferred.

Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.

Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.

Open Stax: Adjusted trial balance
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Read posting before adjusted trial balance and computational check limits; balanced totals alone do not prove correct account/date choices.

Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.

Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.

Open Stax: Common adjusting entries
Source & access notes · checked 2026-10-01

Read accrued revenue/expense, deferral release and depreciation contra-asset entries.

Access: Public primary page body opened and relevant sections read through the web reader on 2026-10-01; no account required for reading.

Reuse: Original Life Starter cases, datasets and questions; no source exercise or worked dataset reproduced. Links support further reading.

Ready when you are

Start with the first useful move.

You’ll always know what to do, what to make, and where to go next.

Start lesson one