Im having problems with understanding what these are and where the balances come from…
What money i owe and what money is owed to me does not equal either balances…
I think quickfile is very good but some is OTT for sole traders doing own accounts 
You don’t really need to worry too much about your debtor and creditor control accounts, although they are there to track money owed to your from clients (debtor control) and money you owe to suppliers (creditor control).
When a sales invoice is created it makes an entry on debtor control, when it is paid it reverses the entry. In general you can just rely on your dashboard totals for these figures.
If there’s any difference between these control accounts and your dashboard totals it’s usually due to holding funds on client/supplier accounts. In such cases they will appear on your control accounts but not on the dashboard totals, which track outstanding invoice balances.
It’s also worth having a look at the follwing post which includes a nice infographic.
What is the Debtors Control Account for?
I hope that clears it up a bit but please let me know if you have any further questions.
Hiya.
What happened - o think - is when i ran year end i didnt do anything with the money owed or due so that made this years figures wrong.
At year end - i owe 500 and others owe me 1000 - what are you meant to do with these figures?
You don’t need to do anything in particular. As long as you tag your invoices and payments, then this balance will adjust automatically.
If you have a sales invoice for £100 for example, this will add an entry to the debtor account. When you mark that invoice as paid (we’ll assume it’s been paid in full), the £100 is removed.
If you’re looking at the chart of accounts, remember that this is just for the date range entered, which by default is the current accounting year. If you view this for all time, (start of trading to date), the balance will match what we show what’s on the dashboard (within a couple of pence)
What happens to these balances at year end?
If i invoice. In march. And get paid in may? With year end in april.
Wont it throw balances out? I know you say it generally doesnt matter but lastbnight i was looking for 1500 that didnt exist
It will balance itself out providing everything is tagged correctly.
If you’re having issues finding a value, you’re welcome to send me a private message (click my name and then ‘Message’) with your account details and what you know about the missing amount, and I’ll take a quick look for you.
Nothing - they sit on your year end balance sheet as assets and liabilities, the profit and loss figures are based only on the sales and purchase invoices you have raised, regardless of whether or not they have been paid.
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Hi Adrian
To reassure yourself and your accountant that all is well, you can go to Reports - Other Reports - Historical Debtors. If the total at the bottom of the report is not the same as the debtors control account, press the Export button and a CSV report will be produced. Click on that report and you will see at the bottom all amounts which you owe to clients will also appear and the new total will agree with the control account.
I hope this is useful.
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