A control account, also referred to by the abbreviation CA, is a tool that is utilized as a management control point that involves the integration of a number of specific and key elements of a number of project specific elements, and after the successful integration, a measurement of the performance to date will take place. The elements which are commonly integrated using the control account tool include the scope of a project, the project’s actual cost as well as the project’s budget, and the project’s schedule. Control accounts are placed at various strategic points of the project’s work breakdown structure. They can be thought of as convenient interchanges along the way of the process, points at which all of the work that has been completed in each of these specific areas can be integrated and any differences can be addressed if not reconciled.

This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.

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