记账

記賬
jìzhàng
verb #30,588

Meanings

  1. 1 to keep accounts
  2. 2 to do bookkeeping
  3. 3 to charge to an account
  4. 4 to put on a tab

Examples

Tā měitiān dōu rènzhēn jìzhàng.
She keeps her accounts carefully every day.
Zhè dùn fàn xiān jìzhàng, yuèdǐ yīqǐ jié.
Put this meal on the tab — we'll settle at the end of the month.
Xiànzài hěn duō rén yòng shǒujī ruǎnjiàn jìzhàng.
Many people now use phone apps to track their spending.

Tips

usage
Two related senses: (1) personal/business bookkeeping — 'to record' + 'accounts'; (2) putting a purchase 'on the tab' to be settled later. The same characters also appear in 记账 'bookkeeper' and 记账软件 'budgeting app.'
mistakes
(zhàng, accounts) and (zhàng, tent / curtain) used to be interchangeable for the 'accounts' meaning, but modern standard usage strictly separates them: financial 'accounts' is always , while is reserved for 帐篷 'tent' and 蚊帐 'mosquito net.' CC-CEDICT lists 记账 as the modern form and as the older variant.

Stroke Order

zhàng