One Subsidiary Per Organization

Some organizations track their Accounts Receivable accounts for each campus or organizational division. If your organization creates financial statements for each campus and you must track A/R accounts for each campus, you will want to use multiple subsidiary control accounts.

Although most students will probably have an A/R account for only one campus, there will be exceptions and you should identify how to track charges for those students taking courses at more than one campus. You should also identify how to track payments from students who have subsidiary accounts from more than one campus (i.e., which account do you credit first?)

The advantages and disadvantages of the organizational division approach can also apply to using subsidiary control accounts for programs (e.g., Graduate, Undergraduate, Continuing Education) or other organizational divisions that are reflected in your financial statements.