Evolution of Accounting

Accounting has been called as the language of business. Accounting is the system which measures business activities. It processes activities in business into reports and communicates the results to top management. Let us now look through the advancement of accounting. Artikel Murah Berkualitas

Ancient Accounting

As early as 8500 B.C., accounting has already existed. Archaeologists have found clay tokens as old as 8500 B.C. found in Mesopotamia which were usually cones, disks, spheres and pellets. These tokens correspond to such commodities like sheep, clothing or bread. They were used in the Middle West in keeping records. After some time, the tokens were replaced by wet clay tablets. During such time, experts concluded this to be the starts of the art of writing. Examples of ancient civilizations keeping account records are China, Babylonia, Greece and Egypt. Like in Babylonia during 3600 B.C., payments of salaries were recorded in clay tablets. In addition, the rulers of these civilizations keep track of labor and material costs used in building structures using accounting. A good example is the case of the Egyptian pharaohs in building their magnificent pyramids.

Middle Ages

During the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries, trade flourished places such as Florence, Venice and Genoa, thus, there was advancement in account keeping methods, thanks to the merchants and the bankers of such time. during the 1211 A.D., one of the systems in accounting was kept by a Florentine banker. However, the system was primitive as the concept of equality for entries was absent. Double entry records first came out during 1340 A.D. in Genoa. In 1494, the first systematic record keeping was formulated by Fra Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan monk and one of the most celebrated mathematicians to this day. Pacioli is considered as the father of accounting.

Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution which was characterized by great changes in working and business transactions paved way to the specialized field of accounting called cost accounting in order to meet the need for the analysis of various costs. In addition, since there was a development of the corporate form of organization, there was a need for a separate and independent report to assure the management's financial representations are reliable. Information Age

At present, there have been tremendous advancements in accounting to meet the needs brought about by information technology. Those duties that required manual, tedious and time-consuming methods can now be done using the computers which make work faster, more reliable, accurate and precise. True enough, business transactions have changed and evolved. Businesses can now be transacted virtually making it faster and hassle free. Businessmen transact their businesses without even facing one another has become possible all because of information technology. With the advancement of businesses, accounting has also advanced to meet the needs of businesses at this day. There has been a great quantity of applications and elements of accounting that meet up the various needs of businesses. As they often point out, as a smart businessman, one must breathe in information technology to keep up with the trend and stay competitive.