Overview

Control accounts are required for Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable transactions (invoices, cash etc.), and for Inter-Entity Accounting transfers. All control accounts are created and maintained via the option Control Account Maintenance (ce_control_ac_maint) and stored in the Control Account table.

A set of control accounts can consist of the following types of accounts, against which a General Ledger posting code is defined:

Grouping Control Accounts

Multiple sets of control accounts can be defined for each ledger (Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inter-Entity Accounting), grouped by up to three parameters:

1. Account Type. This allows you to define a set of control accounts for specific groups of customers and suppliers. For example, you might want to group your customers/suppliers into geographical regions or significance to your business. The Account type can be added to the Customer/Supplier record. The appropriate set of control accounts is used when transactions are posted for these customers/suppliers.
   
   
2. Transaction Short Name. This allows you to define a set of control accounts for each type of transaction on file. For example, you might want a separate set of control accounts for product sales and another for maintenance contract revenue, or a set of control accounts for fixed assets and another for traceable items. The valid transaction types are stored in a sequential file called trans.ini. You add the short name for the transaction type, i.e. INV, CSH, JRN etc. via the option Transaction Short Names (ce_tran_name_maint). See also Setting up Transaction Short Names.
   
   You can enter a transaction short name when carrying out tasks such as raising Sales or Purchase orders and invoices, or entering Accounts Receivable or Payable cash and journals. Where transactions can be entered in batches, you can define a transaction short name for each item within the batch.
   
   When creating a Payments List for purchase payments, you can populate the Short name on each cash item from the Payments List for each supplier (PLLISTSHRT) if your system is set up to use Multiple Payments List and you use transaction short names to define the control accounts – this only applies if you do not have a default set of Accounts Payable control accounts (i.e. you do not have a set of Accounts Payable control accounts with a blank Transaction short name). This functionality is not available for payments via Remittance advices.
   
   
3. Currency. This allows you to define a set of control accounts for each transaction currency. For example, you might want to post transactions entered in US Dollars to a separate control account.

Different parameters can be used for each ledger, for example, you could group your Accounts Receivable control accounts by account type and currency code, and your Accounts Payable control accounts by the type of transaction and the currency code. The availability of the individual parameters is controlled by the following system keys:

• SLCONTMETH – for Accounts Receivable control accounts.
• PLCONTMETH – for Accounts Payable control accounts.
• IECONTMETH – for Inter-Entity control accounts.

The following table shows which parameters are activated, according to the value of the appropriate system key:

Note that you are advised to create a set of 'catch all' control accounts for each ledger. These should be defined with the parameters set to blank.

Posting to Control Accounts

When transactions are posted to the General Ledger the contra posting required to balance the General Ledger trial balance is obtained from the Control account defined on the Control Accounts table for the appropriate ledger (Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable). This also applies to unallocated cash and journals. Allocated cash, refunds and journals are posted to the control account of the original transaction.

Levels of Postings to Control Accounts

Invoice and cash postings to control accounts are controlled by the system keys SLCONTPOST for Receivables and PLCONTPOST for Payables. You can set these keys for transactions to be posted to the control account in detail as individual transactions, or summarised as batch postings. In addition, if posting by batch, you can group the control account postings by effective date by setting the system keys SLCONTEFF for Receivables and PLCONTEFF for Payables.

Cash postings can be posted as a further level of item on a control account basis.

Note, however, that if the account code part of any of the General Ledger posting codes defined in the Control account table has the Summary posting flag ticked, then the system keys SLCONTPOST and PLCONTPOST are overridden and the transaction posted in summary.

Settlement Discount Postings

Discount taken against an item is stored on the cash batch record. Cash allocation discount control postings are then made per item selected within a cash batch.

The posting of the discount is made to either the Authorised or the Unauthorised settlement discount control account, depending on whether the item was set to a or u.

Note that if you use VAT Clawback (OPCLAWVAT is set to YES) General Ledger control account postings will not be grouped by effective date (SLCONTEFF) if control account postings are summarised by batch (SLCONTPOST).

Postings of Exchange Differences

Postings of any exchange differences are made to the Exchange Difference control account for each item within a batch.

Reports

The following reports have the option to sort and total by control account:

• Accounts Receivable Invoice Audit Trail
• Accounts Payable Invoice Audit Trail
• Accounts Receivable Listing
• Accounts Payable Listing

As well as by ageing date, balance forward transactions consolidate on a control account basis.