WHAT ARE CONTROL ACCOUNTS?

What are control accounts?

In Sage 50 and accounting world for that matter there are two control accounts, they are called Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable.

Now why are they called control accounts? The reason is they control all Payalbe and receivable transactons, invoices, credit notes and payments posted in the Sub ledges.

Now you will ask what a sub ledger is. these are the ledgers you use to enter sales journal, purchase journal, payment journal and receipt journal.

Everything you post in the sub ledgers will automatically be posted to the control account as a debit or credit depending on what type of entry it is.

A control account, ex: account# 1200 Accounts Receivable, cannot be accessed and a standalone entry cannot be posted to it. It is a linked account and cannot be accessed on its own in an entry.

A Control account, ex: accounts# 2100 Accounts Payable, cannot be accessed and a standalone entry cannot be posted to it. It is also a linked account and cannot be accessed on its own in an entry.