All 25 Control Accounts questions
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What is teeming and lading and how do control accounts help detect it? How is refund to a customer shown in the sales ledger control account? Which errors affect the control account and which affect the list of balances? How is a contra/set-off recorded in the control accounts? How would an overstatement of the sales day book affect the control account reconciliation? How do you prepare a purchases ledger control account to find missing credit purchases? How does an omitted discount received affect the PLCA reconciliation? How does a contra entry affect both control accounts and the reconciliations?
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Bookkeeping › Control Accounts

How do you prepare a sales ledger control account from incomplete information?

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Answer

Reconstruct the SLCA using the accounting equation of the account: opening debtors + credit sales - receipts - discounts allowed - returns - bad debts +/- contras = closing debtors. Insert known figures and solve for the missing one (often credit sales or receipts) as the balancing figure. This is common in incomplete-records questions.
Opening 5,000 + Sales ? - Receipts 20,000 - Discounts 300
  - Returns 700 = Closing 6,000
  -> Sales = 22,000 (balancing figure)
Real-world example Given receipts and balances but not credit sales, the bookkeeper derives sales as the SLCA balancing figure.

Common follow-ups: How is the missing figure found? | When is this technique used?

Trial Balance Correcting Errors Control Accounts
All 25 Control Accounts questions