[Anonymous]

This may be a silly question….

While updating my resume for a temp agency, I was told to put general ledger as one of my skills. I looked online for a definition of what is meant by this term, and was just able to find it amongst a list of common terms on an accounting resume (accounts receivable, accounts payable, reconciliations, etc).

My confusion is that when using accounting software, other than creating a journal entry – which may or may not affect subsidary ledgers; isn’t any entry already part of the general ledger?

What is it that would make one applicant be able to put this term on their resume and another not be able to include it? Wouldn’t “journal entries” be the same thing as “general ledger”?

Thanks!

[funtiks]

probably means you have experience posting journal entries into whatever software

FAR - 76*, 73, 85
BEC - 69, 72, 78*, 80
AUD - 72, 71, 90
REG - 71, 74, 85

AFTER 3 YEARS I'M DONE!!!

[Mamabear]

Journal entries can be part of it, but the way things are so automated today I wouldn't look at a resume listing “general ledger” and assume it equates to journal entries. I spend most of my time looking at, analyzing, and correcting our general ledger (by creating/posting JEs) to make sure our financials are accurate so I would definitely have general ledger on my resume, but not just list it as “general ledger”. That sounds highly generic to me and makes it seem like the person writing the resume is just throwing out generic accounting terms. General ledger is not a skill, like being an expert in Excel, etc, but what you do in the general ledger would be something you have as a description of your job or achievements. Like **Responsible for general ledger accuracy for liability accounts** or something like that if you're fairly entry level.

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[Anonymous]

just a keyword for headhunters, doesn't mean anything particular

[fuzyfro89]

It means you were in the army and your last name was ledger.

But seriously, it means pretty much nothing. There are so many different GL systems (SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft, etc) that you have to learn how to use it every job you're in and even again within the same company if you move into another area of the accounting function.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the responses – glad to know I wasn't completely missing something!

Fuzyfro89 – hilarious, made me snicker!

[Author]

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