Meaning & use
balance the books
Last updated
Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
to make the total income and total spending of a business or organization equal, or to show this in financial records.
Grammar: Used as a verb phrase; it takes no object: The company balanced the books. NOT The company balanced the books the accounts.
Patterns
- balance the books
The accountant worked late to balance the books before the audit.
Small businesses often struggle to balance the books when sales drop.
After months of overspending, the charity finally balanced the books.
phrasefixed phrase
to make a situation or account show no overall loss or debt, especially by adjusting amounts.
Grammar: Often used with 'try to' or 'manage to': We need to balance the books by the end of the year.
Patterns
- try to balance the books
- manage to balance the books
The government promised to balance the books without raising taxes.
It took several years for the club to balance the books after the stadium was built.
Common combinations
- balance the books
- The finance team meets monthly to balance the books.
- struggle to balance the books
- Many families struggle to balance the books each month.
- help balance the books
- A small grant helped balance the books this year.
- finally balance the books
- After cutting costs, the school finally balanced the books.
Synonyms and how they differ
- break even
- This means to make neither a profit nor a loss, but it does not involve the act of adjusting accounts; 'balance the books' focuses on the accounting process.
- settle accounts
- This means to pay what you owe, often at the end of a period; it is more specific than 'balance the books', which can also mean simply making totals equal.
Commonly confused: balance the books or balance the budget?
balance the books vs balance the budget
This is similar but usually refers to a government or organization planning income and spending, while 'balance the books' often refers to the actual accounting record.
Practice
The company hired a new accountant to help ______.
Choose one answer.
The correct idiom is 'balance the books', always with 'the' and plural 'books'. 'Balance the book' is wrong because it suggests a single book, and 'balance books' without 'the' is not the fixed phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “balance the books”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.