An introduction to accountancy

Abstract

Accountancy, owing to continuous developments in these last decades, has moved and is still moving away from its traditional basis of routine work such as record-keeping, preparation of final accounts, budgeting etc., towards a role which emphasizes its social importance. From the first description of double-entry book-keeping published in 1494 by Luca Pacioli, an Italian friar, accountancy has developed as a result of the growth of large-scale corporate enterprises, regulations by parliaments affecting accoutants and auditors, inclusion in the accountants' work of economic and mathematical ideas, scientific management, imposition of taxes on income and legal regulations obiliging companies to keep proper books of account and in certain cases to publish such accounts.