General ledger review is a critical step in the financial close process where accounting teams analyze ledger accounts to verify financial accuracy before financial statements are generated. Because the general ledger aggregates all accounting activity, reviewing it ensures transactions are recorded correctly and balances are reasonable. Without a standardized review procedure, organizations risk reporting inaccuracies, uncorrected accounting errors, and audit issues. This page provides a general ledger review standard operating procedure (SOP) used by accounting teams to document how ledger accounts are analyzed during the financial close cycle. Many organizations document ledger review procedures using SOP management platforms such as ProcessDeck, allowing accounting teams to standardize review workflows, assign responsibilities, and track close cycle activities. Learn how organizations structure process documentation.
| Process Name | General Ledger Review |
| Department | Accounting / Finance |
| Responsible Role | Senior Accountant |
| Approval Role | Finance Manager or Controller |
| Frequency | Monthly (during close cycle) |
| Systems Used | Accounting software (QuickBooks, NetSuite, Xero, SAP) |
| General ledger reports | Financial reporting tools SOP management software (ProcessDeck) |
The purpose of the general ledger review procedure is to verify that all ledger accounts contain accurate balances before financial reports are generated. Organizations document this process in SOP software to ensure ledger reviews are performed consistently across accounting teams.
A structured ledger review helps organizations:
Understand how organizations preserve operational knowledge through knowledge transfer.
Before performing the ledger review, the following information must be available.
Ledger balances originate from earlier workflows such as the daily transaction recording procedure used by bookkeeping teams. Sop Examples Accounting Bookkeeping Daily Transaction Recording
Bank balances must also match results from the bank reconciliation procedure.Sop Examples Accounting Bookkeeping Bank Reconciliation
Vendor balances originate from accounts payable reconciliation workflows. Sop Examples Accounting Accounts Payable Vendor Reconciliation
Export the general ledger report for the accounting period.
The report should include:
Analyze balance sheet accounts such as:
Ensure balances match supporting documentation.
Analyze income statement accounts such as:
Look for unusual or unexpected variances.
Review journal entries recorded during the accounting period.
Confirm that:
Investigate any unusual account activity.
Examples include:
Document any findings and corrections.
If errors are identified:
Corrections must follow accounting approval policies.
Once review is complete:
Organizations often track this workflow through SOP workflow platforms such as ProcessDeck.
Accounting teams should verify:
These checks ensure financial reporting accuracy. Learn how operational runbooks support incident response.
The general ledger review procedure produces the following outcomes.
These verified balances are used during financial statement preparation. Sop Examples Accounting Financial Close Financial Statement Preparation
They also support variance analysis performed by finance teams. Sop Examples Accounting Financial Close Variance Analysis
Many organizations manage accounting review procedures using SOP management software.
Using SOP platforms allows finance teams to:
Platforms such as ProcessDeck allow organizations to convert financial review procedures into structured SOP workflows. Explore how SOP automation helps teams generate procedures faster. See how walkthroughs can be converted into documentation automatically.