I was working on a project to develop a new product for one of our customers. But then our accounting department informed me that they hadn’t paid their last invoices. I also heard through the grapevine that the company was just about to go bankrupt. So I decided to put the project on the back burner (auf Eis legen), at least until they were up-to-date with their payments.
This idiom comes to us from the world of cooking. Pots and pans of food that need a lot of attention should be on one of the front burners, where they can be easily accessed. If something isn’t such a high priority, you can put it on one of the back burners, where it will be out of the way.