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Control Accounts are nominal codes used by Sage Accounts when making automatic and double-entry postings. The default Control Accounts are shown below. Control Accounts can normally only be changed or amended if no transactions have been posted to them.
If you need to change a control account but you can't because the nominal code has activity, you'd have to use the clear audit trail option. This would clear all your transactions and you'd either have to re-enter them, or enter opening balances. For more details on clear audit trail, please refer to article 11826.
Select the required control account to view a description.
This is used when any postings are made to a customer's account, for example, when you post a sales invoice, Sage Accounts debits the Debtors Control Account with the gross value of the invoice. The balance on this account should match the total amount owed by all customers.
Sage 50 Accounts Plus / Sage Line 50 Accountant Plus and above - This is used when posting prepayments as part of the month end. Sage Accounts posts the balance sheet side of the prepayment journals to this Control Account.
For further information about prepayments please refer to article 13967.
This bank account is automatically highlighted when you open the Bank module. It also appears when you choose any of the banking tasks from the Tasks pane, such as Receive Payment / Make Payment.
This is used when you make any postings to a supplier's account. For example, if you post a purchase invoice Sage Accounts credits the Creditors Control Account with the gross value of the invoice. The balance on this account should match the total amount owed by the suppliers.
Sage Line 50 Accountant Plus / Sage 50 Accounts Plus and above - The Accruals Control Account is used when posting accruals as part of the month end. Sage Accounts posts the balance sheet side of the accrual journals to this Control Account.
For further information about accruals please refer to article 13967.
The VAT element of all sales transactions is posted to this nominal code. For example, posting a sales invoice credits the VAT on Sales Control Account for the VAT amount of the invoice.
You can only change the Sales Tax Control Account if there's no activity on both the existing Control Account and the new one.
The VAT element of all purchase transactions is posted to this nominal code. For example, posting a purchase invoice debits the VAT on Purchases Control Account for the VAT amount of the invoice.
You can only change the Purchase Tax Control Account if there's no activity on both the existing Control Account and the new one.
This nominal code is used when posting VAT transfer journals to move reconciled values from the Sales and Purchase Tax control accounts.
Sage Accounts v14 and above - When you enter a manual adjustment to the VAT Return then click Reconcile, Sage Accounts posts a journal between the VAT Liability and Manual Adjustments control accounts.
For further information about manual adjustments, please refer to article 17349.
This is used when clearing down the profit and loss nominal codes at year end. Sage Accounts posts the net debit or credit balance of all of the profit and loss nominal codes cleared at year end into this nominal code to reflect the surplus or shortfall of income for that year.
A credit posting at year end indicates a profit, a debit posting indicates a loss.
The Default Sales Control Account appears automatically when you enter a sales invoice, except when invoicing customers who've a different nominal code specified in their record.
When you post a customer receipt with a discount, the value of the discount is debited to the Sales Discount Control Account.
This is used to post the amounts charged to customers when you use the Credit Charges option. For further information about the Credit Charges option please refer to article 13876.
When you post a supplier payment with a discount, the value of the discount is credited to the Purchase Discount Control Account.
This is used to post any transactions which account for exchange rate variances, for example, when you mark an invoice as paid using a different exchange rate to that of the invoice, or when using the Foreign Bank Revaluation Wizard. For further information about the Foreign Bank Revaluation Wizard, please refer to article 18285.
The Bad Debts Control Account is used when you post automatic write offs using the Write Off, Refunds and Returns Wizard.
The Suspense Control Account is used to post the double-entry when you post opening balances using the OB option in the Customers, Suppliers, Nominal or Bank records.
The Mispostings Control Account is used when you post error corrections using the Write Off, Refunds and Returns Wizard.