accounting

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The practice of setting up and using a system to record and analyze the financial transactions and financial position of a person or business.

   The firm overhauled its accounting after auditors flagged several errors.

   Modern accounting relies on software to track thousands of transactions.

   Similarbookkeeping, accountancy

   Note

   Business treats it as a mass noun: a firm has careful or sloppy accounting, not accountings. The word is old, account plus -ing from the late fourteenth century, but its tools keep changing. In 1957 Railway Magazine reported electronics applied to accounting at Swindon Works, where a computer handled the pay of some 10,000. It headed the piece 'Electronics in Railway Accountancy', using the near-synonym for the same work.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A telling of events, or a justification of one's actions.

   The committee demanded a full accounting of the decisions made behind closed doors.

   Her accounting of the night's events matched the witness testimony.

   Similarexplanation, report, justification

   Note

   In this sense the word rarely takes a plural, yet it readily takes an article and an adjective: someone gives, or is required to give, a full or thorough accounting of something. It echoes the verb's old sense of answering for one's conduct. The phrase usually implies being called to justify, not merely to narrate, so it suits inquiries, committees and anyone who must explain where their time went.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of account.

   Analysts are accounting for currency fluctuations in the latest forecast.

   By accounting for all the variables, the team improved its model.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty: a participle after be (analysts are accounting for the risk) and a gerund after a preposition (by accounting for every variable). In most living senses the verb is intransitive, so for introduces what is explained or answered for. The transitive 'justify' use is obsolete, though the transitive 'consider' sense survives (accounting him wise). The same spelling is also the bookkeeping noun.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   An equitable remedy that requires profits gained wrongfully to be handed over to those rightfully entitled to them.

   The plaintiff sought an accounting to reclaim profits the defendant earned through fraud.

   The court granted an accounting, forcing the trustee to surrender every improper gain.

   Note

   A remedy from equity, known in full as an accounting for profits. A plaintiff seeks one and a court orders one, and it measures the defendant's gains rather than the plaintiff's loss. Justice Thomas, dissenting in Liu v. SEC (2020), insisted it is a distinct form of relief with a well-accepted definition, even though the majority grouped it with disgorgement, its close relative.

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