Origins Origins

Accounting Business Studies Commerce

Economics and Management Sciences
In South Africa, the oldest about 35 000 B.C. These TALLY-HO
evidence appears for modern could be considered the most Proto-cuneiform was not a written representation of spoken
business behaviours like ancient known accounting
long-distance trade and the computers. language. Its original purpose was to maintain records of the vast
mining of flint for artifact
production. The 20 000-year-old Ishango amounts of production and trade of goods and labour during the
Bones from DRC appear to first urbanisation period in Mesopotamia. 9 000-year-old tablets
The earliest extant record also show matched tally
is the Lebombo Bones that marks used for from the Uruk settlement, on the banks of the Euphrates, were
have been carbon-dated to correspondence counting. used to create the world's first accounts.

Kushim the First Accountant on Record

The first written text in history, more than
5 000 years old, is believed to belong to
an accountant who made barley supply
records. The Urak clay tablets were
prepared by an administrator named Kushim
who was responsible for taking stock of
barley transactions in the ancient Sumerian
city. He is also “responsible” for the first
accounting error and may have been skimming A 5 000 year-old proto-cuneiform
some barley or beer. payslip records of people being
A clay accounting ledger for barley from 2200-1900 BC
remunerated in beer.

LEONARDO PISANO
FIBONACCI's 1202
Book of the Abacus
popularized Hindu-
Arabic numerals
and the decimal
number system in
Europe, originally
BENEDIKT BEN LUCA PACIOLI, a close friend of
i n t r o d u c e d KOTRULJEVIC Leonardo da Vinci's, is often
together with transformed the called the Father of Accounting
MUHAMMAD IBN MUSA AL-KHWARIZMI algebra via Arab accounting world with his and Bookkeeping. Although he
("Algorithmi" in Latin) is known as the mathematics at the most important work , did not invent the method, he
Father of Algebra and the Grandfather end of the tenth written in 1458: The Art of codified the system in great detail
of Computer Science. His book, The century by Pope Trade. He is considered in his book, Everything About
Compendious Book on Calculation by Sylvester II. one of the first economic A r i t h me t i c , G e o m e t ry a n d
Completion and Balancing, also writers and is also Proportion, published in 1494.
known as Kitab al-Jabr, was written recognised as the Father Despite the church's and bankers'
circa 820-830 A .D. He introduced of Accounting. His book guilds' post-reformation fears that
algebra to accounting (from the title, discusses the new all things mathematics were evil,
Arabic "al-jabr" meaning "restoration"), capitalistic society that the timing was perfect for Pacioli's
alluding to the three fundamental was forming in Europe at enormous mathematics manual.
the time. He defined trade First, Hindu-Arabic numerals
accounting-algebraic concepts that
that creates wealth for were gaining popularity as they
later lead to accounting standards:
society and individuals. were easier to manipulate than
error control through double-entry, He also used the term
nominal accounts in the Income the cumbersome Roman
partita doppia for the first numerals and abaci. Secondly,
Statement and real accounts in the time: double-entry
Balance Sheet. Gutenberg's printing press
bookkeeping. Despite
invention ensured the book was
being written almost 600
published throughout Europe. His
years ago, Kotruljevic's
The Hindu-Arabic system of equations focused on equilibrium - in the balance sheet at any date, equilibrium is preserved. By portrayal of trade and work served as extensive guide
definition, equations require two sides to be equal. In an exchange transaction, there is a natural dichotomisation into
tradesmen is still relevant for the merchants of the era,
independent variables (assets) and dependent variables (claims). These are reflected in the Latin words debere (to owe)
today. explaining journals and ledgers in
and credere (to entrust), which are the basis for our modern words, debit and credit.
a way that made the double-entry
system clear and practical.