NSC | Why Income and Expense Accounts Do Not Zero Out After Year-End Closing

After closing fiscal year 2025, a user noticed that the Trial Balance report for the beginning of 2026 still showed prior-year totals. The expectation was that income and expense account balances would reset to zero for the new fiscal year.

This behavior is expected when using NetSuite’s standard year-end closing process.

NetSuite does not require users to manually close a fiscal year by posting a traditional year-end closing journal entry. When all periods in the fiscal year are closed, NetSuite automatically treats the year as closed for reporting purposes. What NetSuite is doing is instead of creating an actual entry. Financial statement figures display as if the accounts have been closed based on the period or periods selected on the report.