why are clearing account used
For example, a company might use a clearing account to hold revenue and costs when completing year-end fiscal calculations. When the company has finished placing the revenue and costs in the account it can then transfer the amount to the company's net earnings.
(Learn how and when to remove these template messages) A clearing account is usually a temporary account containing costs or amounts that are to be transferred to another account. An example is the income summary account containing revenue and expense amounts to be transferred to retained earnings at the close of a fiscal period.