Sneak Peak into the Past of Accounting and Bookkeeping

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Accounting and bookkeeping have been playing a significant role in making your business easier. It is unfortunate for us to give attention now because it has been there for thousands of years. The forms and existence kept changing for improvisation but the original concept stuck to the same notion; to keep the financial cash flow organized. In the earliest times, when there was no concept of screens and technology it was bookkeeping and accounting that manually kept matters sorted out. Even then, the businessmen and owners of properties were dependent on bookkeeping and accounting. Various proofs show us that bookkeeping and accounting is nothing new but an old gem.

History of Bookkeeping:

In various dictionaries of heritage colleges bookkeeping is defined as the profession of keeping an organized record of all transactions and other financial issues. Since ages, this system is being practiced in businesses, schools, non-profit organizations, and churches, etc. Archaeologists claim that they have found remains of some tracking records which date back to 8000 BC. In another search, a clay tablet was found which belongs to 4000 BC. These clay tablets are known to be used for noting down marriage dowries, wills, laws, and loans, etc. Luca Pacioli, a mathematician by profession and known as the Father of Modern Bookkeeping, wrote a book named “Everything about Arithmetic, Geometry, and Proportion”. In this book, he described the system of bookkeeping which is still practiced. Not only the procedure but also the tools of bookkeeping are explained by him in great details. Those tools are dubiously quite simple but those are the only things required by it; journals and ledgers. This book came out in 1494. That was the time when bookkeeping took a proper start for the world. By then, bookkeeping has never stopped. Every business, be it big or small, is using it efficiently.

History of Accounting:

Majority of the people mix these two terms with each other. However, there is a difference. And so there is a difference in tracking down their history. Accounting has been of essential value since forever. Most times use accounting as the chief source of confirmation about financial record and balance. Runs of accounting tracks are found in the ruins of Mesopotamia. Those records are claimed to be 7000 years old. Surprisingly, they used accounting to keep a record of their crop and herd growth. Even more surprising is the fact that the calculations they did to determine whether there was a shortage or surplus growth of the crop in the current year are still used in the present day. The trend of accounting moved towards advancement and got better in the later years. In the era of Roman Empire, Emperor Augustus used accounting to keep a record of revenues generated from public areas, crops and also the amount of money given as loans, charity as well as well construction purposes. In the middle ages, merchants got hands of an even better accounting system. They kept track of everything which showed them accurate statistics.