← All industries

Accounting and Finance SOP Templates

Finance is where an undocumented process becomes an audit finding. These accounting SOP examples cover the procedures every finance team runs on a schedule: the monthly close, accounts payable, expense approvals, payroll, and the reconciliations in between. Copy the structure for your own documentation, or record your screen while performing the procedure and let ReccordSOP generate the SOP with screenshots of every step. Drift detection then flags when what your team actually does stops matching what the document says, which is precisely the gap auditors ask about.

Download all 5 templates

Every template on this page in one file, as Markdown or Word. Free, no signup, ready to adapt in Notion, Google Docs, or ReccordSOP.

Month-end close

The anchor procedure of the finance calendar. Every task needs a named owner and a day-number deadline, or the close stretches from five days to fifteen.

  1. 1.Freeze the period: cut off new AP entries and confirm all revenue is recorded
  2. 2.Reconcile every bank and payment processor account against the ledger
  3. 3.Review and post accruals for expenses incurred but not yet invoiced
  4. 4.Verify intercompany transactions net to zero
  5. 5.Reconcile inventory and cost of goods sold
  6. 6.Run the trial balance and investigate any account that moved more than expected
  7. 7.Prepare financial statements and a variance commentary
  8. 8.Hold the close review meeting and log any adjusting entries with reasons

Accounts payable invoice processing

The three-way match procedure. Skipping the match is how duplicate and inflated invoices get paid.

  1. 1.Receive and log the invoice with vendor, amount, and due date
  2. 2.Three-way match: invoice against purchase order against receiving report
  3. 3.Route mismatches to the purchase owner, never straight to payment
  4. 4.Route matched invoices for approval per the authority matrix
  5. 5.Enter in the accounting system with the correct GL coding
  6. 6.Schedule payment to capture early-payment discounts where offered

Refund and chargeback reconciliation

For ecommerce finance teams: refunds issued in the storefront or helpdesk must tie out to the processor and the ledger, or revenue is overstated.

  1. 1.Export refunds issued this period from the storefront and helpdesk
  2. 2.Match each refund to the payment processor's settlement report
  3. 3.Flag refunds issued outside policy limits and route to the approver
  4. 4.Record chargebacks separately, with fees, and track dispute outcomes
  5. 5.Post the reconciled totals to the ledger and investigate any variance

Expense report approval

  1. 1.Employee submits with itemized receipts
  2. 2.Manager reviews and approves within the authority matrix
  3. 3.Finance verifies policy compliance and flags exceptions
  4. 4.Process reimbursement in the next pay cycle
  5. 5.Post to the general ledger with department coding

Payroll processing

  1. 1.Collect timesheets, new hires, terminations, and rate changes
  2. 2.Run preliminary payroll and compare against the prior period
  3. 3.Review for errors: missing hours, duplicate entries, wrong rates
  4. 4.Obtain sign-off from the payroll approver
  5. 5.Submit for payment and distribute pay stubs

Frequently asked questions

What is an accounts payable SOP?

A written procedure for turning a supplier invoice into a paid, correctly coded ledger entry. The core of it is the three-way match: invoice against purchase order against receiving report, with mismatches routed back to whoever raised the purchase rather than straight to payment. It also names who may approve at each amount, which GL codes apply, and when payment is scheduled. Without it, duplicate and inflated invoices get paid, and nobody can say who approved them.

What should a finance SOP include?

Four things auditors and new hires both need: the trigger (what starts the procedure), the numbered steps with the systems and screens involved, the named role responsible for each step, and the control points where a second person reviews or approves. A screenshot at each control point makes the SOP usable by someone who has never done the task.

How is an accounting SOP different from a checklist?

A checklist tells you what to do; an SOP also records how, in which system, and who approves. The month-end close needs both: the SOP documents each reconciliation procedure, and the close checklist tracks that every one of them happened this month.

How often should finance SOPs be reviewed?

Quarterly for procedures tied to systems (your accounting tool ships UI changes that quietly invalidate screenshots), and immediately after any policy change, new entity, or new payment provider. Most audit findings trace back to a procedure that changed in practice months before the document did.

Related guide

The month-end close SOP for DTC brands on Shopify

A full walkthrough of the close for ecommerce: processor settlements, inventory, sales tax, and the owner-by-owner task list.

Stop writing SOPs manually

Record your screen while performing any process. AI generates the SOP. Drift detection keeps it accurate.

Start for free