true up
n.— «Each December, PG&E looks at the costs associated with delivering power to roughly 15 million Californians. In a process called the “true up,” the utility’s executives study their costs to buy electricity from power plants, maintain their electricity distribution network and hook up new customers, among other things. Then they determine what the next year’s rates will be, based on rate structures that state regulators already have approved.» —“Tiny drop in power bills for PG&E residential customers” by David R. Baker San Francisco Chronicle (California) Dec. 27, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
National Book Award winner Barry Lopez had wise advice for young writers. First, read widely and follow your curiosity. Second, travel or learn a foreign language. And third, find out what you truly believe, because if you’re not writing from...
Is there something inherent in English that makes it the linguistic equivalent of the Borg, dominating and consuming other languages in its path? No, not at all. The answer lies with politics and conquest rather than language itself. Plus: a new...
“True up” is accounting slang meaning “to adjust a figure to its true value.” The adjustment may be either up or down, and typical causes include an estimate becomming outdated (similar to the PG&E;example) or end-of-period error corrections. I’ve heard the verb form more often than the noun, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in print before.