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• bean counter
  bean counter

  noun

  an accountant or other financial officer, often one placing undue importance on spending, financial accountability, and profit, or anyone regarded as having a reductively quantitative focus.
• bean-counter
  bean-counter

  noun

  an accountant

bean counter

American  

[been koun-ter] / ˈbin ˌkaʊn tər /

Or bean-counter

noun

Sometimes Disparaging.

1. an accountant or other financial officer, often one placing undue importance on spending, financial accountability, and profit, or anyone regarded as having a reductively quantitative focus.

   If it were up to the bean counters, this company would never take risks or innovate.

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bean-counter British  

noun

1. informal an accountant

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Etymology

Origin of bean counter

An Americanism first recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bean counter bean-counter

Mr. Glassman might be an effective bean counter, but that is not nearly enough to justify his having a seat on the Maryland Board of Public Works.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 21, 2022

It would not bother me in the least to give my niece the higher amount, because I’m not a bean counter.

From Slate ● May 26, 2021

There no bean counter with a backbone stiff enough to hold the reins.

From Washington Times ● May 23, 2019

Jenkins’ character is a bean counter who questions the need for two shooters to handle this particular job.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 30, 2012

Bill Wyman, the band’s retired bass player and bean counter, wrote “Stone Alone,” in which not a 15-shilling demo disc went unmentioned.

From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2010

Balding and bespectacled, with a greying beard, Vought's public statements typically have the measured cadence of a bean-counter or professor.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2025

An accountant who had to keep his day job during the tough Depression years, many say the dour, dogged Reshevsky played chess like the conscientious bean-counter he was.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 10, 2018

That doesn’t mean you have to become a bean-counter who tallies every single act of friendship and doesn’t make a move until someone moves a point ahead.

From Slate ● Sep. 12, 2017

Medical doctors are raging against the arbitrary patient surveys and bean-counter intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship.

From New York Times ● May 19, 2017

Introducing herself to Bond in 1995's "Goldeneye," the bourbon-drinking M promptly informs Brosnan's Bond that she isn't a "bean-counter," as Bond admits to thinking.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 9, 2012