History of Accounting

Accounting developed as a result of the information needs of merchants in the city-states of Italy during the 1400s. In that commercial climate, a monk, LUCA PACIOLI, a mathematician and friend of Leonardo da Vinci, published the first known description of double-entry bookkeeping entitled Summa de Arithmetica, Geometry, Proportioni et Proportionalite (Everything about Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion), published in Venice in November 1494. This book contains primarily principles of mathematics and incidentally set of accounting procedures.

History of Accounting
The pace of accounting development increased during the Industrial revolution as the economics of developed countries began mass-produce goods. In the 19th century, the growth of corporations, especially those in the railroads and steel industries, spurred the development of accounting.

History of Accounting
Government plated a role in leading more development in the field of accounting when it started using the income tax. Accounting supplied the concept of income. Also, the Government at all levels has assumed expanded roles in health, education, labor and economic planning. To ensure that the information that it uses to make decisions is reliable, the government has required strict accountability in the business community.

History of Accounting
At the beginning of the third millennium, there would still be a lot of developments in the field of accounting. The great challenge of globalization and the effect of new technologies (eg. Super computers, robotics, inter and intra-net, etc) pose a shift in the structure and pattern in the field. More and better information are now being required and therefore, accounting, being the means used in communicating business and financial information must also evolve into a more efficient level.