Control Accounts / Subsidiary Ledgers / Control Account Reconciliation

CA- Financial Accounting & Reporting Fundamentals - Control Account

Control accounts are essentially summary accounts in the general ledger. They contain totals instead of amounts relating to individual debtors or creditors. The individual balances are maintained two subsidiary ledgers namely,

1. Accounts Receivable (Debtors) Subsidiary Ledger
2. Accounts Payable (Creditors) Subsidiary Ledger

Control Accounts allow one to see the totals, without getting into too many details from individual accounts.

In an accounting system, the controlling account is an account in the general ledger for which a corresponding subsidiary ledger will be created.

The subsidiary ledger will track transactions within the controlling account in more detail.

Individual transactions are posted both to the controlling account and the corresponding subsidiary ledger, and the totals for both are compared when preparing a trial balance to ensure accuracy.