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Accounting
Window Dressing
Making the financial statements look better than they really are just before reporting to investors or lenders.
Window dressing is legal but can be unethical if it misleads investors. Regulators watch for aggressive examples. Good analysts look beyond the headline numbers to detect it.
It's tidying the house and hiding the mess in the cupboards right before guests arrive.
Real world: A company delays paying suppliers until after the year-end so cash looks higher, or sells assets temporarily and buys them back later to boost reported profits for the quarterly report.
💡 Window dressing makes the numbers prettier for one day — smart investors always look deeper.