In: Accounting
Our perception of accounting, as noted in our conversation of Accounting Professionalism and tracing its written origin to Luca Pacioli, is of the highest standard. Accounting is a tool to produce financial records of the highest integrity of absolute trust. As one reads through the early history of accounting (circa the 1400s and 1500s), however, it appears that accounting was viewed in a very negative light. Why was this the case? Do the same associations that caused accounting to be considered negatively in the 1400s and 1500s remain today? If so, how, and if not, why not?
Untill late 1400s, the information was recorded in from of single entry book keeping system. In this system the information was arranged in narrative style with all the numbers in single column, Until then there was no system of double entry book keeping system.The entries were laid out with a date, description, and whether it was owed or received by the symbols in the amount column.The bookkeeper had to read the description of each entry to decide whether to deduct or add the amount when calculating something as simple as monthly profit or loss. This was a time-consuming and inefficient tallying method.The single entry system of book-keeping was incomplete, inaccurate and unscientific. It did not help to check the arithmetical accuracy of the books of accounts. Therefore, there is always a possibility of committing frauds and errors in the books of accounts.Therefore there were high chances that accounting was viewed negatively in early 1400s and 1500s.
In the 15th century, Italian monk Luca Pacioli revamped the common bookkeeping structure and laid the groundwork for modern accounting.The benefits of double entry book keeping system was highlighted by him.In the simplest form, this meant creating a balance sheet with separate debits and credits. It was scientific system of recording transaction based on fixed rules and principles. As time evolved opinion of people changed and accounting was no more seen negatively as there were enormous advantages of book keeping.