account payable
- noun
- /əˈkaʊnt ˈpeɪəbl/
- Specialized
:
cuentas por pagar
- During the meeting, they discussed how to manage the company's accounts payable more efficiently.
Examples
-
The accountant reviewed the accounts payable to ensure all invoices were recorded accurately.
-
My client was fired, and before I knew it, someone from the company's accounts payable department was telling me that without written proof of the retainer agreement, they weren't obligated to pay me.
Academic text (2011) -
Um, if you want, I can check with accounts payable.
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- Accounts payable. - One moment, please.
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To maintain a healthy cash flow, it's crucial to monitor your accounts payable regularly.
Synonyms
∞
2.6
An amount of money that you owe to someone
4
5.3
An amount of money a business owes for goods or services bought on credit
1
3.7
Money a company owes suppliers for goods or services bought on credit
Money a company owes to people or companies that it must pay soon
Antonyms
- Specialized
4
5.2
Money that customers owe a business for goods or services not yet paid for
How Urgent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'account' (a record of monetary transactions) with 'payable' (owed or to be paid); a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer it refers to an amount the company must pay or a liability. This compositional pattern is common and mirrored in many languages (e.g., Spanish 'cuentas por pagar'), so the meaning is immediately derivable from the parts.
Etymology
The term account payable comes from old bookkeeping: an account was a record of a bill and payable meant it had to be paid. Imagine a list of bills marked 'payable'. These are the amounts a company still 'owes', so the phrase now means money the company must pay.