🗓️ Idiom: Balance the Books (v)
💬 Meaning
- To ensure that a company’s financial records are accurate and that income matches expenses.
- Often used to describe the process of finalizing accounts to make sure everything adds up correctly.
🧠 Example Sentences
- The finance team worked late to balance the books before the end of the quarter.
- Good accountants know how to balance the books without any discrepancies.
- After the audit, they found errors and had to go back and balance the books again.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom originates from traditional accounting, where financial data was recorded in physical ledgers (accounting books). Balancing the books referred to making sure that all income and expenses were properly accounted for. So the final totals on both sides of the ledger matched.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
The accountant stayed late to __________ the books before submitting the report.
Answer
balance
2. Choose the correct meaning of “balance the books”:
A) Rewrite a financial plan from scratch
B) Make sure financial records are accurate and totals match
C) Spend more money than the company earns
Answer
B) Make sure financial records are accurate and totals match
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“The accountant checked everything to keep the finacial records accurate.” → Change the sentence using: balance the books
Answer
The accountant checked everything to balance the books.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
👉 Finance and Accounting Idioms
👉 Business English Idioms List
👉 Student Space
👉 Tutor Toolkit
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