What is a Bean Counter?
The term bean counter is often used negatively to describe an overly zealous or fastidious accountant, although other financial comptrollers may also fit the description. While an accountant might be asked to perform a thorough inventory of his or her company’s assets, only a bean counter would literally count the number of beans contained in the company kitchen’s pantry. A financial bean counter may also scrutinize each department’s budget to find any form of potential waste, no matter how insignificant or nominal it appears to be. Project managers often fear the appearance of a bean counter, since budget cuts and lengthy audits could follow close behind. The phrase “bean counter” has only been in the public arena since the 1970s, although it sounds as if it should be of a much older origin. Few sources even speculate on the selection of beans as the object of such a laborious count. It is possible that the description was inspired by overzealous kitchen inventory takers who insisted
