 In this discussion, we will discuss the discussion question of list and describe the components of the accounting cycle. So we're considering a discussion question related to the accounting cycle, the accounting cycle being a very broad overview of the processes within the accounting department. And that might just be where we'd want to start within an essay question. We want to define the accounting cycle for say, well, what is the accounting cycle? We're going to say the accounting cycle is going to be the list or the components in a very broad sense that will be covered within the accounting process. Now when we get into the actual listing of them, the detail, many accounting books will differ because really the objective of a list of the accounting cycle is to have an overview of what is going to happen within the accounting process. So we don't want to get too detailed because if we get too detailed, we're losing the big picture, we're losing the overview. And we don't want to have too few things because if we have too few things, then we don't have enough detail even on an overview perspective. So different books could vary in terms of exactly how many steps they will have, but we should be able to have a broad grasp of what the accounting process will be doing. So to start the accounting process, if we're starting the beginning of a month or the beginning of the year, we can just think, okay, what's going to happen? And the main thing that happens, the biggest step, the largest component of the accounting cycle is just recording transactions, recording those day-to-day transactions. That's what the accounting department does most of the time, records those invoices, records those sales, records those receivables, records the bills, records the payroll, records all of the information during the time period. And so that's going to be, I would put that into the one step. We could break that into more detail. We could say that we're going to analyze the transaction. Then we're going to post the transaction to the general journal or we're going to record the transaction to the general journal and then post the transaction to the general ledger and then create the financial, the trial balance from the general ledger. But that might be more steps than we need. We can get in that much detail from a very broad perspective. What we're going to do is we're going to record those business transactions through the accounting department. And then at the end of the month, and I note that these aren't equivalent in timeframe, meaning we're lumping in together all those things that are happening on most days in the accounting department as basically step one. And then in the second step, what we're going to do is start the adjusting process. And we're going to do those adjustments that we need to do in order to make sure the financial statements are correct as of the end of the time period on an accrual basis in order to make the financial statements. So again, you can break that out into more steps. You can say, well, at the end of the time period, in order to do the adjusting process, the accounting department will create the unadjusted trial balance. Then we're going to put that unadjusted trial balance into a worksheet in order to record the adjusting entries. We will then record the adjusting entries and post them to our worksheet and go from the unadjusted trial balance to creating the adjusted trial balance, the trial balance, which now we believe all accounts are correct, that can then be used to create the financial statements. But again, that might be more detail than you need. You might want to put that this is the broad category, which is after the normal accounting process, we're going to do the adjusting entry process. Then once we complete that, once we were done with the adjusting entries, we're going to use that adjusted trial balance to really do the end goal, what we want to get to, the financial statements. So we're going to create the financial statements from the adjusted trial balance. And you would think maybe that would be the end. You might say, hmm, that's, you know, we got to what we wanted to do. That's the end. But we really need to clean things up now for the next time period. So even though this is really after this, it's happening for the next time period. It's kind of like the night shift cleaning up for the next day. And that's going to be the closing process. So after the financial statements are done, after the main event has happened, then we're going to do the closing process. And that's going to be the last kind of component. Once again, you can break down the closing process to a few more steps if you were asked this in an essay question. And you can say, well, the closing process, we're going to take the unadjusted trial balance, we'll put that into a worksheet and we will make our closing journal entries to them to end up with the post closing trial balance. And if you wanted to get even more detail, you can discuss what is within the post closing trial balance and, you know, how, what they look like and whatnot. But from a very broad overview, and then we can get into whatever detail we want as we list these, we're going to start off with the normal business transactions, then we're going to do the adjusting process, then we're going to create the financial statements from the adjusted trial balance, and then we're going to do the closing process. And then at each step within that, if you want to pick up as many points as possible, I would put in possibly some subgroups and just get more detail so that you make sure you cover enough detail to get whatever the essay question is looking for.