What どんぶり勘定 means in this context?


I have doubts about the usage of the phrase どんぶり勘定 below:

[![](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sPOP4.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sPOP4.png)

[Jisho](https://jisho.org/word/%E3%81%A9%E3%82%93%E3%81%B6%E3%82%8A%E5%8B%98%E5%AE%9A)
suggested that I should understand it as "rough estimate" of profit, which
kind of makes sense to me in this context. However, I cannot find any mention
of this meaning in other dictionaries, like
[Pixiv](https://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E3%81%A9%E3%82%93%E3%81%B6%E3%82%8A%E5%8B%98%E5%AE%9A).
Can どんぶり勘定 mean "rough estimate"?




It appears that "yes", _donburi kanjō_ is a set phrase referring to a kind of
rough-and-ready approach to finances.

If you can read Japanese, [this page on
Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%BC%E5%8B%98%E5%AE%9A-586821) has
entries from both the 日本国語大辞典【にほんこくごだいじてん】 and 大辞泉【だいじせん】. I see similar
entries in my copies of 広辞苑【こうじえん】, 大辞林【だいじりん】, and 新明解【しんめいかい】

Broadly speaking, this originally refers to essentially just having a pile of
money, and not bothering to record debits and credits and just dealing with
things as they happen. The _donburi_ part refers to the _donburi_ bowl, a
large bowl maybe akin to some senses of the English word "pot", into which one
would put all cash, taking out what is needed to settle any bills, and just
throwing more money into the pot whenever paychecks come in.

By extension, the term _donburi kanjō_ came to refer to this kind of rough-
and-ready, "eh, that's about good" way of accounting: everything is "petty
cash" might be one way to look at it.

