In accounting, the controlling account (UK: control account; also known as adjustment account) is an account in the general ledger

General ledger

The main accounting record of a business which uses double-entry bookkeeping. It will usually include accounts for such items as current assets, fixed assets, liabilities, revenue and expense items, gains and losses. Each General Ledger is divided into debits and credits sections. The left hand...

 for which a corresponding subsidiary ledger

Subledger

The subledger, or subsidiary ledger, is a subset of the general ledger used in accounting. The subledger shows detail for part of the accounting records such as property and equipment, prepaid expenses, etc. The detail would include such items as date the item was purchased or expense incurred, a...

 has been created. The subsidiary ledger allows for tracking transactions within the controlling account in more detail. Individual transactions are posted both to the controlling account and the corresponding subsidiary ledger, and the totals for both are compared when preparing a trial balance

Trial balance

A trial balance is a list of all the nominal ledger accounts contained in the ledger of a business. This list will contain the name of the nominal ledger account and the value of that nominal ledger account. The value of the nominal ledger will hold either a debit balance value or a credit value...

 to ensure accuracy.

For example, Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable

Accounts receivable also known as Debtors, is money owed to a business by its clients and shown on its Balance Sheet as an asset...

 is the controlling account for the Accounts Receivable Subsidiary Ledger. In this subsidiary ledger, each credit customer has their own account with their own balance. Thus, while the Accounts Receivable balance can report how much the company is owed, the Accounts Receivable subsidiary ledger can report how much is owed from each credit customer.

Other examples of controlling accounts and their subsidiary ledgers include Accounts Payable

Accounts payable

Accounts payable is a file or account sub-ledger that records amounts that a person or company owes to suppliers, but has not paid yet , sometimes referred as trade payables. When an invoice is received, it is added to the file, and then removed when it is paid...

 (accounts payable subsidiary ledger) and Equipment (equipment subsidiary ledger).