![]() ![]() ( The Saint Louis American ) It’s Bean a Slice I really want to buy that bookstore that’s closing down, so I whipped up a business plan and a copy of my finances to drop off at the family bean counter.Įqually striking is Green’s sense of a possible timeline for getting this done – again, coming from someone with the caution of a bean counter.Did you know that they used real beans to make abacus back in the day? I guess that’s why they’re called bean counters.I wanted my daughter to become a doctor, but she’s going to school to become a bean counter.As a bean counter myself, I can confidently say that you can’t afford to upgrade your equipment during this quarter.Don’t be such a bean counter we need to invest in Netflix before it’s too late and shares become too expensive.I had to run my budget proposal for that new business idea by the corporate bean counters in accounting before I could present it to the board.In 1668, Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen used the term in print in “Simplicissimus.” Why Are Accountants Called Bean Counters?īack then, accountants apparently used beans and beads on an abacus to keep track of certain financial transactions. Erbsen means beans, and zähler means counter, but it sometimes translates to nitpicker, too. It actually comes from the German word “Erbsenzähler” and became popular in the 1600s. However, I can see how you could use it in a derogatory way to poke fun at someone who needs to lighten up and stop worrying about money or to belittle someone who is boring and works with numbers.īut I know a few accountants who have embraced the term as a badge of honor and even refer to themselves as bean counters. ![]() The term bean counter is not supposed to be offensive. They are probably responsible for tracking financial transactions, managing budgets, and ensuring everything add up correctly.Īlso, bean counters are usually stereotyped as being boring, methodical, and overly focused on the bottom line, like a stuffy office worker. A bean counter is an idiom we use in jest to describe someone who works closely with numbers, like an accountant. ![]()
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