cook the books meaning

• (informal)
    To falsify accounts, etc
• 
  [American slang]
  Go to cook the accounts.
• 
  [Finance]
  To deliberately falsify the financial statements of a company. This is an illegal practice.

• be on the books:    1. To have one's n ...
• books:    [Business]noun [pl ...
• on the books:    [American slang]Go ...

Examples

1. to cook the book, to make something fraudulent or false
2. maybe we did cook the books a little bit
3. or what they do . i cook the books
4. cook the books
5. although my friend was usually honest, he decided to cook the books . he illegally changed the financial records of the company