In reality, there is no point in stereotyping accounting and accountants, be it positive or negative,
since accounting encompasses so many different activities. The short but apt description of
accounting is “the language of business”. The American Accounting Association offers a more
formal definition: "The process of identifying, measuring, and communicating economic
information to enable users of the information to make informed judgments and decisions." A
major role in facilitating all forms of economic activity in the private, public, and non-profit sectors,
in endeavors ranging from coal mining to community theater to municipal finance is Luca Pacioli,
who first published in 1494 in his Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita
described the double-entry bookkeeping system used by Venetian merchants.
Of course, companies and governments recorded business information long before the Venetians.
But it was Pacioli who first described the system of debits and credits in journals and ledgers that
remains the basis of today's accounting systems.The Industrial Revolution stimulated the need for
more advanced cost accounting systems. The development of corporations created much larger
classes of outside financiers - shareholders and bondholders - who were not part of the company's
management but had a vital interest in its results. The growing public status of accountants helped
make bookkeeping a profession, first in the United Kingdom and later in the United States. 1887 31
Accountants