HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ACCOUNTING

Early civilizations

6000 BCE

To go back to the origins of Accounting, it is necessary to remember that the oldest civilizations knew rudimentary arithmetic operations, many of these operations creating auxiliary elements to count, add, subtract, etc. Taking into account time units such as the year, month and day. An example of the development of these activities is the creation of the currency as the only instrument of exchange.

MESOPOTAMIA

3500 BCE

The oldest written language testimonies of western culture are those found in Lower Mesopotamia, dating back to 3,500 BC, which are precisely administrative and accounting documents, referring to the taxes to be paid to the temple .

FENICIOS

2500 BCE

The Phoenicians, a people who lived in what is now Lebanon, learned the art of accounting records, probably from the Egyptians, managing to perfect a accounting system around 1100 years B.C., taking charge of spreading this technique to through their colonies.
The "accountants" of that time used for their calculations a instrument, as a primitive version of the abacus, of which the
first news around 2,500 B.C.

EGYPT

1383 BCE

Between the Egyptians and the Hebrews there was a whole accounting organization with ad hoc personnel, the scribes, who were in charge of public accounting.
Some Egyptian accounting records have been deciphered, which has allowed to establish that the accounting bookkeeping was well implemented around 1383 and 1392 B.C., in the reign of Sesostris.

AUDITING PROFESSION

423 BCE

The auditing profession was born to double check storehouses as to what came in and out the door.

ANCIENT GREECE

323 BCE

Public accounting was also developed in Greek cities.
Gertz (1996: 32), states that «The first great known Economic Empire was that of Alexander the Great (356,323 BC), ... the Greek bankers were famous in Athens, exerting their influence throughout the Empire. Of them it is said: "They kept an accounting to their clients, which they had to show when they were demanded; their ability, and their technical knowledge made them frequently used to examine the accounts of the city

KEEP ACCOUNTING

1243

The first requirement for businesses to keep accounting records spread across many of the Italians Republic in the 13th century. These records were mainly taken to keep track of the day to day transactions and credir accounts with other businesses.

FIRST WRITTEN

1494

Luca Pacioli, the father of accounting, writes his famous paper "Everything about Arithmetic, Geometry and Proportion".

DOUBLE ENTRY RECORDS

1500

As the time progressed, double entry records had larg and small innovations added.

THE REVOLUTION INDUSTRIAL

1700

During the industrial revolution accounting really took off as industrial companies sought out to gain financing and maintain efficiency through operations. Shortly after, the first accounting organization was developed in New York in the year 1887. The title and professional license of the Certified Public Accountant followed shortly in the year 1896.

USA GAAP

1920

Was developed shortly after by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the financial accounting Standards Board (FASB)

CODIFICATION

1940

The codifications reveals all of the current practices and standards, and even reveals developing areas of standards of accounting that are currently being debated