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

Etymology

Origin of bookkeeping

First recorded in 1680–90; book + keeping

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

An independent auditor this summer called the city out for sloppy bookkeeping and noted that it had spent more than what was planned for in previous budgets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

The Crusades, for example, sped development of international finance and spurred creation of double-entry bookkeeping.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

The riskiest segments included administrative support, data entry, bookkeeping, and editing, said the study.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 17, 2026

"Mr Kahn's work for Epstein was precisely the same kind of accounting and bookkeeping work that thousands of professionals provide to clients on a daily basis," Dan Ruzumna told the BBC.

From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026

So from the point of view of asteroid research the twentieth century was essentially just a long exercise in bookkeeping.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson