Difference b/w general ledger & general ledger control account

The general, or nominal, ledger contains details of assets, liabilities, income amd expenses. Eg cost of motor vehicles, sharemcapital, sales and heating costs. It also contains the sales ledger control account (or total receivables account) and the purchase ledger control account (or total payables account). Often the general ledger will also have a cash control account. If so, a complete trial balance can be extracted from the general ledger.

However, because cash, receivables and payables are very ‘busy’ amounts, information is also held i(e duplicated) in the receivables ledger, the payables ledver and the cash book. Eg the receivables ledger has an account for each credit customer showing what each owes. The control account does not hold that detail – just the total of receivables.

Other than the sales ledger control account, the purchase pedger control account and the cash control account (duplicating in summarised for the cash book) we do not know of a separate nominal ledger control account.

Yes. It is easier to understand if instead of using the term ‘control account’ you use ‘total account’.

The cash control account exactly mirrors the entries in the cash book. The cash book credit entries are likely to be analysed across several columns in the cash book. The cash control account would simply record the total of all the cash outgoings.