Control accounts: five questions to try now
Real past-paper questions, the answer key from the mark scheme, and the explanation that goes with it. No account needed to answer them.
Question 1
A company prepared its purchases ledger control account, which showed a balance of $15 960. The following items were then discovered. What was the correct total of the trade payables?
Answer: C.
Four items, and only three touch the control account. The discounts received entered as $540 instead of $450 over-debited it by $90, so $90 goes back on. The debit balances of $110 omitted from the account must be reinstated, and reinstating them raises the credit balance by the same $110 so the account still balances. The contra of $170 reduces what is owed. That gives 15 960 plus 90 plus 110 less 170, which is $15 990. The unrecorded payment of $720 is a LEDGER error and never reaches the control account.
Question 2
The purchases ledger control account for a business shows a closing balance of $7640.
The following items were then discovered. What was the credit balance to carry down after adjusting for these items?
Answer: D.
Four adjustments, each pushed to the correct side. The invoice in the purchases ledger but not the journal never reached the control account, so $250 goes on. The unentered sales ledger contra takes $630 off. Reinstating the omitted $70 debit balance raises the credit balance by the same $70, because the account must still balance. Returns INWARDS belong to the sales ledger and should never have been debited here at all, so removing that $540 debit adds it back. That gives 7640 plus 250 less 630 plus 70 plus 540, which is $7870.
Question 3
The opening balance on a purchases ledger control account was $18400. The following errors or omissions were then discovered. What was the corrected balance on the purchases ledger control account?
Answer: A.
Three of the four move the control account. The invoice entered as $680 instead of $860 leaves the credit $180 short, so $180 goes on. Discounts received reduce what is owed and belong on the DEBIT side, so crediting $400 is a wrong-side error costing $800. The set-off with the sales ledger takes off $150. That gives 18 400 plus 180 less 800 less 150, which is $17 630. The returns item credited to the supplier's account is a LEDGER error and leaves the control account untouched.
Question 4
Where is discount allowed recorded? Each answer gives, in order: cash book; discount allowed account; sales ledger control account.
Answer: C.
Discount allowed is an expense the business grants to customers, so it is DEBITED to the discount allowed account, and the memorandum discount column on the receipts side of the cash book is likewise the debit side. In the sales ledger control account it goes to the CREDIT side, because it reduces what customers owe. That split, an expense debited in one place and a reduction credited in another, is what the question is testing, and every other row keeps the three consistent when they should not be.
Question 5
A sales invoice to Jane has not been recorded in the books of prime entry. Which accounts are affected by this error? Each answer gives, in order: sales ledger control; Jane.
Answer: D.
Both accounts are affected. An entry missing from the books of PRIME entry never reaches anything derived from them, so it is absent from the sales journal, from the total posted to the sales ledger control account, and from Jane's personal account in the sales ledger. That is exactly why an omission of this kind survives a control account reconciliation: both sides are equally short, so they still agree while both are wrong.
What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 9706 Accounting papers and filtered to control accounts. You answer, you find out immediately whether you were right, and you get the reasoning for the correct option and for each distractor. Wrong answers go to a mistakes locker so you can come back to exactly those.
Practice is free. You need an account only so your progress and your mistakes are still there next time.
What examiners see students get wrong here
These are the errors that cost marks on control accounts, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Including cash sales or cash purchases.
- Putting discount allowed on the debit side of the sales ledger control account.
- Including the allowance for irrecoverable debts.
- Putting the contra on the wrong side, or contra'ing more than the smaller balance.
- Treating the sales ledger control account as a credit balance.
- Saying an agreeing control account proves the ledger is correct.
- Forgetting that a dishonoured cheque is a debit in the sales ledger control account, restoring the amount the customer owes.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: Control accounts revision notes.