What is accounting? How did accounting come into being and develop?

Accounting is the work of recording, calculating, controlling, analyzing and reporting the economic activities of enterprises, institutions, organizations and other economic organizations with money as the main unit of measurement, so as to provide financial and management information. The main function of accounting is to reflect and control the process of economic activities, ensure the legality, truthfulness, accuracy and completeness of accounting information, provide necessary financial information for managing the economy, participate in decision-making and seek the best economic benefits.

Development of accounting

The early accounting was relatively simple, just calculating and recording the income and expenditure of property. With the increasing development of social production and the continuous progress and development of science and technology, accounting has experienced a long development process from simple to complex, from low to high. Its development process mainly includes the following three stages:

1. Ancient accounting. As early as the primitive society, with the improvement of social productivity, people had surplus prey and food, so people had to calculate to eat or exchange, which required simple records and calculations. However, because words did not appear, they had to "draw notes" and later developed into methods such as "knotting notes" and "engraving notes". These primitive and simple records are the seeds of accounting. With the further development of production and the progress of science and technology, the types of labor consumption and labor achievements are increasing day by day, and a large number of surplus products have appeared. Accounting has gradually "separated from the production function and become an independent function of special and special clients". According to Marx's research, in the initial small-scale Indian commune, there was already a bookkeeper who registered agricultural projects and registered and recorded everything related to it. This is the early accounting in ancient times.

2. Modern accounting. It is generally believed that the transition from single bookkeeping method to double bookkeeping method is the symbol of the formation of modern accounting, that is, at the end of 15 th century, Italian mathematician Luca? 6? 1 The publication of Bachale's book on double-entry bookkeeping marks the beginning of modern accounting.

(1)/kloc-The invention of navigation technology in the 5th century enabled mankind to discover the earth and opened the curtain of human civilization. Italy's Florence, Genoa, Venice and other places of commerce and finance are also particularly prosperous. With the development of commerce and finance, the double-entry bookkeeping method, which has been popular in these three cities, needs to be improved and perfected. Double entry bookkeeping technology first comes from the bank's deposit transfer business. In order to meet the actual needs, 1494, Italian mathematician Luca? 6? 1 Bachale published his arithmetic. Geometry. The Summary of Ratio and Proportion systematically introduces the double-entry bookkeeping method in Venice and gives a theoretical explanation. Thus began the history of modern accounting.

(2) From15th century to18th century, the development of accounting theories and methods was still relatively slow. It was not until the invention of steam technology realized the industrial revolution of society that accounting developed greatly. In Britain, due to the rapid improvement of productivity, accounting has developed rapidly. In the past, accounting was mainly bookkeeping and accounting, but now it is necessary to prepare and audit reports. In order to meet the needs of preparing financial statements, it is also required to learn asset evaluation methods and related theories.

(3) After the First World War, the United States replaced Britain, and it was in a leading position in both production and scientific and technological development. Therefore, the development center of accounting has also shifted from Britain to the United States. In the 1920s and 1930s, the research on standard cost accounting in the United States made rapid progress. At this time, the accounting method has been relatively perfect and the accounting science has been relatively mature.

3. Modern accounting. With the more complicated economic activities, more socialized production and more extensive social relations, the status and role of accounting, accounting objectives, accounting principles, methods and technologies are constantly developing, changing and perfecting, and gradually forming their own theory and method system. In addition, the improvement of science and technology has greatly promoted the development of accounting. The combination of modern mathematics, modern management science and accounting, especially the application of electronic computer in accounting data processing, has greatly changed the efficiency of accounting work. It expands the scope of accounting information, improves its accuracy and great changes, expands its scope and improves its accuracy and timeliness. In this way, by the middle of the 20th century, a relatively perfect accounting system was gradually formed. It is generally believed that the emergence and continuous improvement of cost accounting, the formation of management accounting and the separation from financial accounting are the beginning of modern accounting.