accounted

Accounted is the past tense and past participle of the verb account. It has two principal meanings. In general use, it means to explain or justify something; in accounting and finance, it means to record, classify, or reconcile items in financial records.

Etymology: The term derives from the verb account, which comes from Old French acount (or similar forms) from Latin computare, meaning to count or reckon. Over time, the sense broadened from counting to include explanations and presenting a record of transactions.

Usage in accounting and finance: To account for something is to record it in the books and, if necessary, reconcile it with other records. The phrase all items were accounted for indicates that each item has been identified and included. The phrase account for a variance means to explain why a difference occurred or to adjust the books accordingly. In audits, discrepancies may be investigated and then accounted for, meaning explained or resolved in the financial statements.

General usage: As a phrasal verb, account for can take a noun phrase as its object: to account for the increase in revenue, for example. The past tense form appears in sentences such as the gains were accounted for in the quarterly report or the missing inventory was eventually accounted for.

Grammatical note: Accounted is the regular past tense form and is used with have/has/had to form perfect tenses or with be in passive constructions.

See also: account, accounting, accountant, accounting equation.