Struggling with Control Accounts

AWright

Hi all,
I was hoping that someone may be able to impart some wisdom, or a mnemonic or anything, really, to do with Control Accounts.

Here's what I know so far:
- Control accounts are summaries of accounts
- If there's a sales ledger control account then the sales ledger is not part of the double entry
- Sales from the sales day book are input in the debits column of the sales ledger control account
- Sales from the sales day book are still split out and documented in the sales account and the VAT account

Here's what I'm finding hard:
- How does the subsidiary sales ledger relate to this?
- What really is the point of a sales ledger control account, aside from 'summarising'? In the examples that I've seen, accounts that do not have a sales ledger control account simply put the total of the sales day book into the sales account. So what's the point of putting it in an entirely separate book?

I know I'm probably overthinking this but it feels like I've been staring at this concept for ages and it's started to lose what little meaning it had!

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks

amurray

Hi AWright,

Control accounts aswell as summarising are 'checking accounts', this ensuring that anything entered in the Subsidiary ledgers agree with the General ledger balances, this is why control account reconciliation is such an important tool to avoid any discrepancies between the accounts.

I came across 2 articles which I hope can be of use to you. It took a while to get my head around Control Accounts, but when you do it just becomes second nature (like can be said for the Double Entry concept of Debits & Credits).

https://www.accountingcoach.com/blog/accounts-receivable-control-account-subsidiary-ledger
https://www.double-entry-bookkeeping.com/bookkeeping-basics/control-accounts/
http://kfknowledgebank.kaplan.co.uk/KFKB/Wiki Pages/Control Accounts.aspx

I also found a few Youtube videos, if these are any help?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bSOhdMZGAc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOacqk39llY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjJDMTw3EhQ


Are you practising control accounts with practice examples as I found this really helped my understanding.