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Doing this allows you to produce a trial balance and balance sheet without all of the transactions displayed. Similarly, all the entries regarding credit sales are posted in the account receivable ledger, along with sales returns and discounts allowed. To ensure accuracy of the ending balance for accounts receivables, we obtain accumulated figures for the credit sales, cash received, sales return, and discount allowed to construct the control account.

Example of Control Accounts

For example, Jim’s hardware store invoiced two customers for a total of $700. He also received a payment in the amount of $275 from a previous invoice. My Accounting Course  is a world-class educational resource developed by experts to simplify accounting, finance, & investment analysis topics, so students and professionals can learn and propel their careers. Shaun Conrad is a Certified Public Accountant and CPA exam expert with a passion for teaching. After almost a decade of experience in public accounting, he created MyAccountingCourse.com to help people learn accounting & finance, pass the CPA exam, and start their career. Suppose the closing balance of creditors in the general ledger is valued at $3,45,000 as of December 31, 2021, and the following is the break-up of the balance.

Used primarily in larger businesses that are still using manual ledger systems, general ledger control accounts are also used in accounting software applications and are created during the chart of accounts setup process. We can analyze that the total balance in the payable ledger amounts to $345,000 and carried forward balance in the payable control account amounts to the same balance. Hence, we have reconciled the balances and can use this balance in the preparation of financial statements.

Control accounting both helps produce clean financial reports, and provides checks and balances for accurate reconciliation. In the case of an accounts receivable control account, the subtotal of the customer balances in the subledger must match up to the control account. If it does not, then there is an error somewhere in the books that must be corrected. While subsidiary accounts are critical for recording a company’s transactions, control accounts allow for high-level analysis by simply focusing on the balances of each account.

Example of purchase ledger control account

For financial reports, the summary balances provided by the control accounts are generally all that’s needed for analysis. Simply we health insurance quotes can say that it tells how much business owes to the suppliers of a business at a particular time period. It means the aggregate accounts payable are included in this control account. Following are the accumulated balances of the figures that impact the ending balance of accounts receivables. However, sometimes there can be no match between the closing balance in the control account and the total of the party-wise accounts. In this case, there are three possibilities of errors that include the following.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Control Accounts

1. Used primarily in larger businesses that are still using manual ledger systems, general ledger control accounts are also used in accounting software applications and are created during the chart of accounts setup process.
2. It explicits total trade debtors of a business entity at a specific given period.
3. Jim doesn’t need to post the details of any of the transactions since the details are already recorded in the subsidiary ledger.
4. When comparing the control accounts and subsidiary accounts, both ending balances should match.

If you need to view a specific transaction, you would need to access the appropriate subsidiary ledger in order to view the details. Again, all of this information is automatically completed if you use accounting software. Hence, we have reconciled the control account and receivable balance in the general ledger.

In a small business the accounts can be kept in one accounting general ledger and a trial balance can be extracted from that ledger. In a larger business, where the transactions are too many to be managed by one person, subsidiary ledgers such as the accounts receivable ledger (sales ledger) and the accounts payable ledger (purchase ledger) will be opened. The subsidiary ledgers are now part of the double entry system, and to extract a trial balance it would be necessary to collect information on the balances from each of the ledgers. In order to avoid this situation the general ledger maintains control accounts for each of the subsidiary ledgers. Those subledgers are totaled for each reporting period, and the totals make up the balance of the accounts receivable control account. In other words, the accounts receivable control account reflects the total amount that a company is owed, while the its subledger shows how much each individual customer owes.

However, before using specific balance calculated, we need to apply control and ensure the accuracy of the balance. We need to apply control because these accounts are expected to have a massive number of transactions. The people who would monitor these accounts are called control account managers. You don’t want the person in control of your general accounts in control of the control accounts, as well. Imagine your trial balance or balance sheet with hundreds of transactions appearing on it. As we can analyze, that carried forward balance of the control account is equal to the closing balance in the general ledger, totaling to $180,000.

When reviewing the control ledgers, it’s easy to identify errors that exist in subsidiary ledgers. Because the control account only reviews the end balance, there is less risk of miscalculation. If your accounts don’t match, it’s likely that the subsidiary ledger has the error. This can happen easily in things like the accounts receivable subsidiary ledger. However, if you’re still using a manual ledger system, the purpose of control accounts is to take the balance of the accounts in the subsidiary ledgers and post the total into the general ledger.

It can find out mistakes and errors in personal or individual accounts. For instance, all the transactions regarding credit purchases will be posted in the subsidiary payable accounts, where party-wise data is maintained along with purchase returns when does your child have to file a tax return and discounts received. In addition to catching errors, control accounts can also help you review the general ledger. When specific control accounts do not balance, you know that they need to be checked.

Example of sales ledger control account

A company can have hundreds or thousands of customers with current accounts receivable balances. All of these balances are recorded in separate A/R subsidiary accounts. The total of all of these accounts is carried forward into the A/R control account, which appears in the general ledger and the financial statements.

Control account details are found in their corresponding subsidiary ledgers. A company that sells products on credit may have many transactions in the accounts receivable subledger. The details of those transactions live in the subledger and the balance is reported to the control account. The control account for accounts receivable will only show the total amount that is owed to the company at a point in time without all the details of each customer’s transaction. For example, “accounts receivable” is the controlling account for the accounts receivable subsidiary ledger. In this subsidiary ledger, each credit customer has their own account with its own balance.

And as payments come in, the control account is credited, decreasing the balance. If you’re still using manual ledgers to record accounting transactions, the best thing you can do is make the switch to accounting software, which includes complete control account management. If Jim had any returns or customer discounts, he would also post them in the control account to make sure that the subsidiary accounts and the control account remain in balance. However, these balances are in aggregate, and it’s difficult to trace the specific balances in the control account. So, to trace the balance of the specific party, we need to analyze the subsidiary ledger/party-wise ledger. It’s the account that is used to record all credit transactions made in terms of sales.

The general ledger can have hundreds of accounts from asset and liability accounts to income and expense accounts. More over, each account type can have hundreds of smaller accounts called subsidiary accounts. If every single account was included in the general ledger, it would be very large, unorganized, and difficult to use. That is why control accounts are used to summary data from large numbers of related accounts.

Further, all the related transactions like cash collected from credit customers, discount allowed, provision recorded, and sales return are recorded in the control account. If anyone wants to see detailed transactional information for accounts payable or accounts receivable, they can review the detail located in the subsidiary ledger, since it is not located in the general ledger. Control accounts are mainly used to help identify errors in the subsidiary ledgers, but the use of them gives a business a number of additional advantages. Accounting software will automatically categorize data and create control accounts and subledgers, allowing for simple data segmenting, as well as accurate accounting practices.