Hold back company books and most of inventory (7)
I believe the answer is:
control
'hold back' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'company books and most of inventory' is the wordplay.
'company' becomes 'co' (abbreviation).
'books' becomes 'nt' (New Testament).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'most of' means to remove the last letter.
'inventory' becomes 'roll'.
'roll' with its last letter removed is 'rol'.
'co'+'nt'+'rol'='CONTROL'
(Other definitions for control that I've seen before include "Exercise power over" , "Direct or determine" , "Command, regulate" , "Power to restrain or regulate" , "Influencing power" .)