cook the accounts

cook the accounts

To falsify financial records for a company or organization. My partner had been cooking the accounts for years, but because I was the CEO, I got the blame for our company's collapse.
See also: account, cook
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

cook the accounts

 and cook the books
to cheat in bookkeeping; to make the accounts appear to balance when they do not. Jane was charged with cooking the accounts of her mother's store. It's hard to tell whether she really cooked the accounts or just didn't know what she was doing.
See also: account, cook
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • cook the books
  • the blame for (something)
  • blame for
  • blame for (something)
  • blamed
  • a/the fish rots from the head down
  • a/the fish stinks from the head down
  • be had up (for something)
  • thick/thin on the ground