 In this discussion, we will discuss the discussion question of describe the differences between temporary accounts and permanent accounts. So we're considering what account types are in terms of whether or not they are temporary or permanent. So by the look of this question, since it says between temporary accounts and permanent accounts, we can make the assumption that most accounts, if not all accounts, will fall into one of these two categories, either temporary or permanent. So first we need to basically define what temporary and permanent accounts are and possibly be able to do that by naming which accounts are going to be primarily temporary accounts and permanent accounts. When we consider temporary accounts and permanent accounts, we often discuss them in terms of the closing process because that's really where we need to apply that difference and see that difference very readily. We also apply it in other areas as well. We're focusing here on the closing process, but the temporary accounts are going to be the income statement accounts and the draws accounts and they have to do with timing. They have to do with how something is going to accumulate over time and the closing process is an area where we see this distinctly and it really helps us to understand other areas of accounting as well, including just the relationship between the financial statements meaning helps to better define the idea that the income statement and the statement of equity deal with timing, these temporary accounts being involved with them, whereas the balance sheet deals with permanent accounts deal with as a point in time. And so we see that concept from basically day one all the way through all of accounting concepts, this difference between a point in time type of accounts and timing type of accounts. So the temporary accounts then mean that they're going to close out, meaning they're going to return to zero kind of like a stopwatch returns to zero periodically in order to measure some point in time. In other words, the accounts related to temporary accounts, revenue expenses and the draws account make no sense without a timeframe, without a beginning and end date, without two dates to describe a range of time, whereas when we think of the permanent accounts, the balance sheet accounts, assets, liabilities and equity, we only need one date, we only need one date in order to define what those accounts mean at a given point in time. So that's going to be the major difference between the temporary accounts and the permanent accounts. Temporary accounts mean that you're going to have a time range. Permanent accounts mean that it's going to be a point in time. Temporary accounts will return to zero periodically, typically at the end of the month or year and we'll just reset the clock as we do with basically a stopwatch to count over again. Permanent accounts on the other hand will remain at all times unless they are zero as long as the underlying factors are still there, meaning as long as we still have the assets, liabilities and equity related to them, they will still remain and not be zeroed out at any time during the accounting process. Now we're given this one in terms of us focusing in on the closing process and so we might want to consider the closing process here and say well temporary accounts are going to be the accounts that will be closed out, they're going to be closed out to equity ultimately so the temporary accounts of revenue and expenses and draws will be closed out periodically at the end of the month or year to the equity account. Permanent accounts on the other hand will not be closed out at the end of the time period, they will remain, the only permanent account that's really usually involved in the closing process will be the capital account or the retained earnings account if we were a corporation and that's because it will still remain, it doesn't go away, it's not a temporary account, it doesn't go to zero but that is the account that we will be closing the temporary accounts into.