a. The history of accounting can be traced long back in civilization. Around 4000 B.C., in Babylonia and Egypt, payment of wages and taxes were recorded on clay tablets. As history claims that Egyptians kept the record of gold and valuables deposits and withdrawal from the treasuries. These records were reported on daily basis by the incharge of treasuries to the wazir, who used to forward the monthly reports to the king. Babylonia and Egypt used this method to rectify and remove errors, frauds and inefficiency from the records. Around 2000 B.C., China used sophisticated form of accounting.
In Greece, accounting was used to maintain total receipts and total payments and to balance government accounts. In Rome, around 700 B.C., receipts and payments were recorded in daybook and were posted in the ledger at the end of the month.
b. In India, around twenty three centuries ago, Kautilya wrote the book Arthshastra, which describes how accounting records have to be maintained.
c. In 1494, Luca Pacioli wrote the book ‘Summa’ de Arithmetica Geometria Proportioniet Proportionality. In this, he explained the term debit and credit, which are used in accounting till date.
