on the books

English

(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.
(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.

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