History of BookkeepingBookkeeping has a long history which can be traced back somewhat around four thousand years back. The history records suggest that the very first person to develop a bookkeeping system was Fra Luca Pacioli who was an associate of Leonardo da Vinci. Fra Cu Pacioli was a well known mathematician and he imported this bookkeeping system in the 13th century when the merchants wanted to track down their finances and sales. Till date, that bookkeeping system is being used by the business houses to maintain a record of their finances and tracking their assets as these are essential for calculating ones sales.
Prominent Pioneers in BookkeepingThere are two prominent names that have made great contributions to the field of bookkeeping; one is Fra Luca Pacioli and second is Benedetto Cotrugli. Fra Luca Pacioli is also known as the father of bookkeeping as he is the one who discovered various bookkeeping tools such as ledgers and journals. Benedetto Cotrugli is the one who invented the double entry bookkeeping system. Another important contribution made by Contrugli is that he codified and wrote a book on the various accounting processes that are to be used in the bookkeeping act.The Beginning PhaseIn an unwritten format, the process of bookkeeping came into being when people started using tokens to maintain a complete record of the complete trade. In about 8000 B.C, a crude format of bookkeeping was developed in Jericho which was used to maintain a record of the properties that were owned by the kings. With time, the merchants and other small traders also started using this bookkeeping system for tracking their finances.Discovered FindingsMany new discoveries started coming up as the time progressed and it was in 4000 B.C that the clay tablets were used to carry out the bookkeeping chores. These clay tablets were used by all the businessmen to record the finances of their businesses.The Present Day Bookkeeping SystemThe present day bookkeeping system is made up of business ledgers, balance sheets and other types of financial statements that are used to track down the finances of a business. Almost all small and big businesses are using the bookkeeping system to know from where the profits are coming, what are the basic spending areas and the tax statements.Although the face of bookkeeping operations have changed tremendously in the past, now it has become a reliable and a must have component for every small scale and big business house. The various things that this bookkeeping process has made easy for business owners is to maintain their financial statements using balance sheets, managing the monthly financial operations and carrying out tax planning in a planned way. It can be said that with bookkeeping, it has become easy for business owners to take big decisions in their business that include finances.If utilized in an appropriate manner, bookkeeping system can yield enormous benefits to the business owners giving them time to concentrate on their business.
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