on the books

English

Prepositional phrase

on the books

1. (business, accounting) Officially recorded in an organization's financial records.
   • 1908, Jack London, The Iron Heel, ch. 11:

     Promptly came the reply that there was no record on the books of father's owning any stock.

   • 1999 October 17, Karl Taro Greenfeld, "Mattel: Some (Re)Assembly Required," Time:

     The immediate problem was $100 million in inventory, which Mattel thought had been sold, that mysteriously reappeared on the books at Learning Co. Oops.

2. (law) Officially recorded in the lawbooks; having the force of enacted law.
   • 2009 Sept. 28, Gaëlle Faure, "Why Doctors Are Giving Heroin to Heroin Addicts," Time:

     Britain already has heroin on the books as a medication.

   • 2012 Dec. 20, Ethan Bronner, "Use of Death Sentences Continues to Fall in U.S.," New York Times (retrieved 20 March 2013):

     While a majority of states — 33 — still have the death penalty on the books, that number has also been on the decline.

See also

• off the books

References

• “on the books”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.