irregularities

Definition

Deviations from expected patterns or norms—those red flags in financial statements or audit results that make compliance officers lose sleep.

Example Usage

The auditors flagged several irregularities in the quarterly expense reports that needed immediate investigation.

Source: Accounting and finance terminology

Related Terms

Advanced

tranche

French for 'slice,' because everything sounds fancier in French, especially when you're dividing up debt into pieces. In finance, it's a portion of a larger pool of securities, bonds, or loans, each with different risk levels and maturity dates. Investment bankers use this term to make selling chopped-up mortgages sound sophisticated—we all remember how that worked out in 2008.

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buyout

When one party acquires a controlling stake in a company by purchasing enough shares to tell everyone else to pack their desk plants. It's the corporate equivalent of buying out your roommate's lease, except with more lawyers, bigger numbers, and significantly less drama about who gets the couch. Can be friendly (management buyout) or hostile (surprise, you work for someone else now).

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Enterprise Value

A company's total value including debt and excluding cash, representing what you'd pay to own it outright and settle all obligations. It's market cap's more sophisticated cousin that actually understands capital structure.

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maturity

In finance, the magical date when a debt instrument finally dies and you get your principal back, assuming the borrower hasn't conveniently declared bankruptcy. It's the finish line of your bond investment journey, when all those coupon payments finally culminate in getting your original money returned, possibly worth less due to inflation. The financial equivalent of your kid moving out—you've been waiting forever, and when it finally happens, you're not sure if you should celebrate or panic about what comes next.

💰 Finance / Accounting

Intermediate

crypto

Short for cryptocurrency, the digital money that exists entirely in the cloud and whose value fluctuates more wildly than your mood on a Monday morning. It's either the future of finance or the world's most elaborate Ponzi scheme, depending on whether you bought Bitcoin at $100 or $60,000. Also refers to cryptography, the actual useful technology that crypto enthusiasts sometimes remember exists.

💰 Finance / Accounting

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profit

The magical number left over after you subtract all expenses from revenue, assuming your accounting department is feeling generous about what counts as an expense. It's what companies supposedly exist to generate, though many startups operate for years as if this is merely optional. Shareholders love it, the IRS wants to tax it, and CFOs have seventeen different ways to calculate it.

💰 Finance / Accounting

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Intermediate

regulation

Rules created by executive agencies or regulatory bodies that have the force of law, even though they're not passed by l...