Double-Entry Bookkeeping Task

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A Double-Entry Bookkeeping Task is an bookkeeping task that requires the majority of financial account entries (to a financial account) to have a credit entry and a debit entry.



References

2016

  • (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ http://wikipedia.org/wiki/history_of_accounting#Double-entry_bookkeeping Retrieved:2016-3-3.
    • When medieval Europe moved towards a monetary economy in the 13th century, sedentary merchants depended on bookkeeping to oversee multiple simultaneous transactions financed by bank loans. One important breakthrough took place around that time: the introduction of double-entry bookkeeping, which is defined as any bookkeeping system in which there was a debit and credit entry for each transaction, or for which the majority of transactions were intended to be of this form. [1] The historical origin of the use of the words "debit" and "credit" in accounting goes back to the days of single-entry bookkeeping, which had as its chief objective keeping track of amounts owed by customers (debtors) and amounts owed to creditors. Debit in Latin means "he owes" and credit in Latin means "he trusts". [2] The earliest extant evidence of full double-entry bookkeeping appears in the Farolfi ledger of 1299-1300. Giovanno Farolfi & Company, a firm of Florentine merchants headquartered in Nîmes, acted as moneylenders to the Archbishop of Arles, their most important customer. [3] The oldest discovered record of a complete double-entry system is the Messari (Italian: Treasurer's) accounts of the city of Genoa in 1340. The Messari accounts contain debits and credits journalised in a bilateral form and carry forward balances from the preceding year, and therefore enjoy general recognition as a double-entry system. [4] Luca Pacioli's Summa de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalità (early Italian: "Review of Arithmetic, Geometry, Ratio and Proportion") was first printed and published in Venice in 1494. It included a 27-page treatise on bookkeeping, "Particularis de Computis et Scripturis" (Latin: "Details of Calculation and Recording"). Pacioli wrote primarily for, and sold mainly to, merchants who used the book as a reference text, as a source of pleasure from the mathematical puzzles it contained, and to aid the education of their sons. His work represents the first known printed treatise on bookkeeping; and it is widely believedto be the forerunner of modern bookkeeping practice. In Summa de arithmetica, Pacioli introduced symbols for plus and minus for the first time in a printed book, symbols which became standard notation in Italian Renaissance mathematics. Summa de arithmetica was also the first known book printed in Italy to contain algebra. [5] Although Luca Pacioli did not invent double-entry bookkeeping, [6] his 27-page treatise on bookkeeping contained the first known published work on that topic, and is said to have laid the foundation for double-entry bookkeeping as it is practiced today. [7] Even though Pacioli's treatise exhibits almost no originality, it is generally consideredas an important work, mainly because of its wide circulation; it was written in the vernacular Italian language, and it was a printed book. [8] Pacioli saw accounting as an ad-hoc ordering system devised by the merchant. Its regular use provides the merchant with continued information about his business, and allows him to evaluate how things are going and to act accordingly. Pacioli recommends the Venetian method of double-entry bookkeeping above all others. Three major books of account are at the direct basis of this system: # the memoriale (Italian: memorandum) # the giornale (Journal) # the quaderno (ledger)

      The ledger classes as the central document and is accompanied by an alphabetical index. [9]

      Pacioli's treatise gave instructions on recording barter transactions and transactions in a variety of currencies – both of which were far more common than today. It also enabled merchants to audit their own books and to ensure that the entries in the accounting records made by their bookkeepers complied with the method he described. Without such a system, all merchants who did not maintain their own records were at greater risk of theft by their employees and agents: it is not by accident that the first and last items described in his treatise concern maintenance of an accurate inventory. [10]

  1. Mills, Geofrey T. “Early accounting in Northern Italy: The role of commercial development and the printing press in the expansion of double-entry from Genoa, Florence and Venice" (Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 4 No. 2, June 1993, pp. 113-140)
  2. Thiéry, Michel: Did you say Debit?, Assumption University (Thailand), AU-GSB e-Journal, Vol. 2 No. 1, June 2009, p.35, AU.edu
  3. Lee, Geoffrey A., The Coming of Age of Double Entry: The Giovanni Farolfi Ledger of 1299-1300, Accounting Historians Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1977 p.80 University of Mississippi
  4. Lauwers, Luc & Willekens, Marleen: "Five Hundred Years of Bookkeeping: A Portrait of Luca Pacioli" (Tijdschrift voor Economie en Management, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1994, vol:XXXIX issue 3, p.300), KUleuven.be
  5. Alan Sangster, Greg Stoner & Patricia McCarthy: "The market for Luca Pacioli's Summa Arithmetica" (Accounting, Business & Financial History Conference, Cardiff, September 2007) p.1–2, Cardiff.ac.uk
  6. Carruthers, Bruce G., & Espeland, Wendy Nelson, Accounting for Rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the Rhetoric of Economic Rationality, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 97, No. 1, July 1991, pp. 37
  7. vSangster, Alan: "The printing of Pacioli's Summa in 1494: how many copies were printed?" (Accounting Historians Journal, John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, June 2007)
  8. Lauwers, Luc & Willekens, Marleen: "Five Hundred Years of Bookkeeping: A Portrait of Luca Pacioli" (Tijdschrift voor Economie en Management, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1994, vol:XXXIX issue 3, p.292), KUleuven.be
  9. Lauwers, Luc & Willekens, Marleen: "Five Hundred Years of Bookkeeping: A Portrait of Luca Pacioli" (Tijdschrift voor Economie en Management, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 1994, vol:XXXIX issue 3, p.296), KUleuven.be
  10. Alan Sangster, Using accounting history and Luca Pacioli to teach double entry, Middlesex University Business School, September 2009, p.9, Cardiff.ac.uk

2015

  • (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/double-entry_bookkeeping_system Retrieved:2015-12-10.
    • 'Double-entry bookkeeping, in accounting, is a system of bookkeeping so named because every entry to an account requires a corresponding and opposite entry to a different account. For instance, recording earnings of $100 would require making two entries: a debit entry of $100 to an account called "Cash" and a credit entry to an account called "Income."

      The earliest known written description of double-entry accounting comes from Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli. In deciding which account has to be debited and which account has to be credited, the golden rules of accounting are used. This is also accomplished using the accounting equation: Equity = AssetsLiabilities. The accounting equation serves as an error detection tool. If at any point the sum of debits for all accounts does not equal the corresponding sum of credits for all accounts, an error has occurred. It follows that the sum of debits and the sum of the credits must be equal in value.

      Double-entry bookkeeping is not a guarantee that no errors have been made — for example, the wrong ledger account may have been debited or credited, or the entries completely reversed.

2014