The author inquires into the quality standards required for a two-language special-language dictionary to enable its users to make active use of the special language in question. The dictionary examined here is a lexicon of German-French accounting terms. In order to function, such a dictionary must transcend a terminologically restricted concept of special(ist) language and establish and reflect the links with so-called 'everyday' language. The (meta)lexicographic 'workshop report' presented here investigates three quality criteria: 1. the composition of the corpus, 2. the 'cut' of collocations, 3. the question of equivalence.