What does the saying “cooking the books” mean?
Cooking the books and massaging the numbers are terms you’ll hear often in accounting. Accounting is the record keeping of transactions made. This has large effects on a company’s earnings report, financial statement, income statement, cash flows and the like. Cooking the books means that you literally alter these numbers to say what you want them to say. Massaging the numbers generally refers to a practice of lightly altering the numbers. Although still an alteration, the latter is much more accepted. Here’s an example. What’s 2+2. A by the book but probably out of work accountant would answer 4. Someone massaging the numbers would say sometimes 3 and sometimes 5 but also sometimes 4. Cooking the books would be someone who replies: “whatever you want it to be.
