A Control Panel is a tool employed to manage the content of a web hosting account. This includes, but is not limited to, files, emails, databases, stats and various operations performed with them. The Control Panel offers a web-based interface to manage all of these things and everything else related to the hosting service through different sections where you can access functions through buttons and/or menus. The less difficult to use a Control Panel is, the easier it'll be for you to manage your world-wide web presence altogether. In the common case, the CP is the web hosting account’s back office, while an independent billing account is employed to control payments and domain name registrations - if the company offers that service. Trouble tickets could be managed from the billing account or via a different system.