What is a Control Account?

He enjoys working directly with customers to identify solutions to their challenges, and using data-driven decision making to drive his work. He holds a master’s degree in computational mathematics from the University of Washington. For the next two examples, we’ll use an example organization called AnyCompany that we created in AWS Organizations. You can create a similar organization to follow along directly with these examples, or adapt the sample policies to fit your own organization. GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with.

So, it will tell you the total collections and total receivables you owe from your customers. 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 example of control account customer owes. The sales journal is totalled for the accounting period, and used to make a double entry posting to the general ledger. The sales are posted to the credit side of the sales revenue account, and to the debit side of the accounts receivable control account. The balance of the control account should always be equal to the balance in the subsidiary ledger accounts.

How To Prepare A Control Account? Example and Format

Control accounts also underpin sustainability by supporting strategic financial planning. The regular reconciliation of control accounts provides timely and accurate financial data, which aids management in making informed decisions about the company’s future direction. This forward-focused, proactive approach ensures that the organization remains financially healthy and agile, further contributing to its overall sustainability. Within the financial ecosystem, control accounts and subsidiary accounts share a symbiotic relationship, creating a balanced financial structure.

(3) A payment of $322 from a customer has incorrectly been entered in the accounts receivable ledger as $233. (1) Individual ledger account balances at 31 March have been listed out and totalled $19,766. However, like any financial tool, control accounts also come with their potential limitations and complexities.

Structure of a Control Account

This process is made more accessible by having control accounts for each subsidiary account listed in the general ledger. For example, all payables entered during one day will be aggregated from the subsidiary ledger and posted as a single summary-level number into the accounts payable control account. A control account in accounting is defined as a summary-level account in the general ledger. The account contains the sum total of individual transactions from subsidiary ledger accounts. Control accounts are typically used to summarize the accounts payable and accounts receivable ledgers. Those ledgers usually contain a vast number of transactions that should be separated into different subsidiary ledgers rather than clogging up the general ledger with too much information.

• The balance column keeps track of the running balance of the control account after each transaction.
• By doing this, companies limit how much space is taken up on the ledger.
• The details for each control account will be found in a related (but separate) subsidiary ledger.
• This preventative approach can save a company significant time and resources in rectifying financial mistakes.
• One of the central ways in which control accounts support sustainability is through promoting efficient use of resources.

When comparing the control accounts and subsidiary accounts, both ending balances should match. If the control account balance doesn’t match the subsidiary ledger, a mistake in calculations may have been made. The details of a control account will be found in a corresponding subsidiary ledger. The control account keeps the general ledger clean of details, but contains https://www.bookstime.com/ the correct balances used for preparing a company’s financial statements. A control account works as an adjusting and controlling account that summarizes and sums up balances of all subsidiary accounts’ information of a specific account type in a general ledger. Subsidiary accounts are used to provide support and detailed information on a related account type.