The control account is used in facilitating?

A.

The various location of errors in the various accounts

B.

Up to date bank transactions

C.

The payment of debts and liabilities of the firm

D.

Assets distribution with respect to income

Correct answer is A

A control account, often called a controlling account, is a general ledger account that summarizes and combines all of the subsidiary accounts for a specific type. In other words, it’s a summary account that equals the sum of the subsidiary account and is used to simplify and organize the general ledger. The purpose of the control account is to keep the general ledger nice and clean without any details, yet contain the correct balances to be used in the financial statements. 

  • Control accounts allow a single trial balance to be extracted from the general ledger.
  • If the trial balance does not balance, only the accounts whose control account does not reconcile need to be checked for errors.
  • A different person can maintain the control account as a check against fraud.
  • Control accounts speed up the process of producing management accounts information as the control account balance can be used without waiting for the individual balances to be reconciled and extracted.
  • Control accounts reduce the amount of detail needed in the general ledger.