What rolls an account's ending balance into the retained earnings accounts, effectively making the balance forward zero?

The process that rolls an account's ending balance into the retained earnings accounts, effectively making the balance forward zero, is related to closing accounts. When a company closes its temporary accounts—like revenues and expenses—at the end of a financial period, the net balance is calculated and transferred to the retained earnings account. This essentially resets the balances of those temporary accounts to zero for the new period.

Non-closing accounts typically refer to permanent accounts, such as assets and liabilities, which do not get closed at the end of an accounting period. Adjusting entries are made to ensure that accounts reflect the correct balances at the end of a reporting period, and statistical accounts are used to track non-financial data, which does not pertain to the closing process. Therefore, the function of closing accounts is fundamental in the accounting cycle as it prepares the books for the next period by resetting certain account balances.