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What is an aged receivables (debtors) analysis and why is it used? How is a refund to a customer or from a supplier recorded? How is an early-settlement discount received from a supplier recorded? How do you record goods taken by the owner from inventory (drawings in kind)? How do you record interest charged to a slow-paying customer? How do you account for an irrecoverable (bad) debt in the sales ledger? How do you reconcile the sales ledger to the sales ledger control account? How do you handle a supplier statement reconciliation in the purchases ledger? How do you account for a provision (allowance) for doubtful debts affecting receivables? How is VAT bad-debt relief handled when writing off a receivable?
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What is the difference between the memorandum ledger balance and the control account balance?

Intermediate

Answer

The memorandum (subsidiary) ledger balance is the total of all individual personal accounts; the control account balance is the independently-posted total in the nominal ledger. They should agree; a difference signals an error in one of them, found via a control account reconciliation.
Real-world example The debtors list totals 6,500 and should equal the sales ledger control account balance.

Common follow-ups: Why should the two agree? | What does a difference indicate?

Control Accounts Correcting Errors Sales & Purchase Ledgers
All 25 Sales & Purchase Ledgers questions