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Create a Control account

Control accounts are used in the preparation of draft financial statements to roll up account balances from a schedule to a main Balance Sheet, to transfer account balances from one section of a statement to another, or to simplify the appearance of divisional accounts on the Balance Sheet and income statements.

When entering adjusting or transaction entries, posting accounts assigned to these control accounts update automatically.

Prerequisites:

  • The account number must be between 1 and 99. Account numbers exceeding 99 are Prime Posting accounts.

To create a Control account:

  1. On the ribbon, click Account | Trial Balance.
  2. In the Trial Balance, click the Report worksheet tab, then click New. A new line is inserted.
  3. In the Name column of the new line, enter a description for the Control account. Click ... to add an extended description.
  4. In the Type column, select a statement type from the drop-down menu.
  5. In the Account No column, enter a number from 1 to 99.
  6. In the CTL column, assign posting accounts by entering the posting account's Control account number.

The Control account is added to the Trial Balance. You can view or modify the Control account from the Account worksheet.

Notes:

  • Control accounts are only used in the Report worksheet of the Trial Balance.
  • Control account numbers are non-posting accounts and are not included in the general ledger.
  • To delete an account, select it in the Trial Balance, then click Delete. Note that you cannot delete accounts with opening, prior, or budget balances.
  • Select Lock for the account to prevent changes to transactions, adjusting entries, account balances, and properties. Users can only create unrecorded adjusting entries using the account.