Subsidiary Control Accounts

Each subsidiary control account appears on the General Ledger financial statements, represents a separate balance for an individual, and can be printed or omitted on statements.

Each A/R Subsidiary Control Definition contains the following columns:

·       Subsidiary Code (SBS Code): This two-character code identifies each subsidiary control account.

·       Subsidiary Account Number (SBS Account Number): This number identifies the General Ledger account that will serve as the subsidiary control account.

·       Subsidiary Description: The Statement program uses the subsidiary description as a header for each subsidiary account.

·       Receipting Priority (Rcpt Prty): This column controls the order in which accounts will be credited during A/R receipting.

·       Financial Aid Priority (FA Prty): This column is used by the Agency Billing feature in the Financial Aid module.

·       Default Receipt Code (Dflt Rcpt Code): When the Receipt Entry window automatically creates payment transactions, it uses this code to retrieve important transaction information.

·       Default A/R Subsidiary Type (Dflt SBS Type): When the system creates a Subsidiary Master row for a student, it uses this column to determine which subsidiary type to use.

·       Finance Charge Account Number: For each subsidiary control account, you can identify the General Ledger account that will be used as the income account for generated transaction rows for finance charges.

You can define an unlimited number of subsidiary control accounts. However, you should be aware of the possible complexities as you choose your subsidiary structure because the following functions may become more complex as the number of subsidiaries increases:

·       Creating Charges: When the system creates charges (such as tuition), is it easy to identify which subsidiary account will receive the charge? Are there some charges that might be split between two subsidiary accounts?

·       Applying Payments: If a payment or a financial aid award comes in, how do you apply it to a list of balances? Is there a "pecking" order as to which subsidiary account is paid off first?

·       Creating Subsidiary Master Rows: Although Subsidiary Master rows are usually created automatically, adding subsidiary control accounts means you have more subsidiary accounts to track.

·       Statements: These are often longer and more complex due to more subtotals and totals.