bookkeeping

American  

[book-kee-ping] / ˈbʊkˌki pɪŋ /

noun

1. the work or skill of keeping account books or systematic records of money transactions (distinguished from accounting).

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Other Word Forms

• bookkeeper
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of bookkeeping

First recorded in 1680–90; book + keeping

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Explanation

Bookkeeping is keeping track of a business's financial transactions. Most bookkeeping these days happens on computers rather than in actual books. The activity of keeping your own financial records and the job of doing the same thing for a company are both considered bookkeeping. Some people teach themselves basic bookkeeping and others hire experts to do it for them. The word bookkeeping comes from the sense of book that means "record" or "written document," and it has the distinction of being one of very few words in English with three consecutive double letters.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bookkeeping

Her first fraudulent application came in May 2020 when she applied for a £16,250 Bounce Back loan for One2Four Accounting Ltd - a bookkeeping services company she set up in June 2018.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

She has since enrolled in a bookkeeping certification program through Intuit to reflect her work managing finances.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026

There’s not a textbook for empathy the way there is for Python or for bookkeeping.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 11, 2026

Amanda said she is picking up whatever work she can, including hospital administrative duties and bookkeeping gigs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026

Double-entry bookkeeping thus represents an attempt to make the real world, the world of bolts of silk, bales of wool and bags of sugar, mathematically legible.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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