Ancient accounting stage

China, Babylonia, Egypt, India, Greece and other ancient civilizations have left records of accounting activities. After that, the housekeeper of European manor needs to report its management effect to the manor owner.

China's "Zhou Li" has accounting posts, such as a "company" in charge of state and local property and materials.

A "four-column inventory" was formed in the Yuan Dynasty, that is, "old management+new collection = expulsion+reality", that is, "original+new collection = take away+surplus".

Babylonians were good at organization and management, and set up a "special recorder".

The idea of internal control first appeared in Egypt.

Coins appear in India and Greece and are recorded in the books.

Modern accounting

It is generally believed that modern accounting began before and after the formation of double-entry bookkeeping. 1494, mathematician Luca pacioli expounded the basic principle of double-entry bookkeeping in "An Overview of Arithmetic, Geometry, Ratio and Proportion". -This is the first milestone in the history of accounting development.

Double entry bookkeeping first appeared in Italy, and later spread to Holland, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Britain, France and so on.

After the industrial revolution, accounting theory and methods have developed significantly, thus completing the transformation from bookkeeping to accounting.

1. The idea of devaluation

Before the industrial revolution, durable long-term assets were often scarce. Businessmen generally write off durable property at the time of scrapping, or regard it as inventory (unsold goods), and then increase or decrease the owner's equity through inventory valuation at the end of the year. However, with the increasing number of long-term assets and their importance in the process of production and operation, people gradually realize that traditional methods can no longer correctly determine profits and losses, so long-term assets should be allocated in a certain way during their economic life, and the concept of "depreciation" arises.

2. Divide capital and income

With the increasing scale of enterprises, investors and operators are increasingly separated and more concerned about the return on invested capital. Therefore, the owner's investment and return on investment must be strictly distinguished, which requires accountants to strictly distinguish between income expenditure and capital expenditure, and at the same time, the proportion of income and cost should be appropriate, so that the income statement becomes one of the important statements disclosed to the public.

3. Cost accounting

With the development of heavy industry and the expansion of production scale, the manufacturing cost of enterprises has soared and become an indispensable part of product cost. At the same time, with the increasing complexity of enterprise production, the collection and distribution of manufacturing procedures and expenses are also correspondingly complicated. These changes provide opportunities for the emergence of cost accounting system. Finally, taking the valuation of inventory as a breakthrough, a cost accounting method based on historical cost is formed.

4. Audit system of financial statements

The separation between owners and operators is becoming more and more obvious. As an owner who does not participate in the daily operation and management of the enterprise, he will inevitably care about the preservation and appreciation of the invested capital, so the management authorities are required to provide financial statements reflecting the financial situation and operating results of the enterprise on a regular basis. However, due to the subtle interest opposition between the management and the owner, as well as the asymmetric information between them, the owner (who may not have professional knowledge of accounting) cannot fully trust the financial statements provided by the management, so it is hoped that they can be verified by objective and neutral accountants to increase the credibility of the financial statements. This has formed a financial statement audit system.

1854, Scotland established the first institute of chartered accountants in the world, which is regarded as another milestone in the history of accounting development after double-entry bookkeeping.

Modern accounting

The appearance of "Accounting Research Announcement" in GAAP is the starting point. At this stage of accounting development, both accounting theory and accounting practice have made amazing progress, which indicates that the development of accounting has entered a mature stage.

generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)

The economic crisis from 1929 to 1933 played a role in inducing labor. After the economic crisis, people think that loose and irregular accounting behavior is one of the main reasons for the economic crisis. In order to save the accounting profession, the accounting profession thinks it is necessary to establish accounting standards. 1934, the new york Stock Exchange and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants approved the first batch of accounting standards, including six contents, namely

(1) Profit must be realized;

(2) The capital reserve shall not be used to adjust the current year's income in any year;

(3) The surplus existing before the merger of subsidiaries shall not be included in the surplus reserve of the parent company;

(4) Notes receivable and employees' accounts receivable are listed separately;

(5) Dividends from treasury stocks shall not be regarded as income;

(6) Donated capital is not regarded as surplus.

1937, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began to issue the Accounting Series Release (ASR), which is a regulation related to the information disclosure of listed companies, and gave the accounting profession the right to formulate accounting standards in ASR No.4, while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) retained the right of supervision and the final veto. Since then, the accounting standard-setting group has gone through the Accounting Procedure Committee (CAP), the Accounting Principles Committee (APB) and now the Accounting Standards Committee (FASB). Among them, FASB has issued 133 financial accounting standards announcements (SFAC or FAS) since its establishment.

Both accounting theory and accounting practice have made amazing progress.

In addition to the introduction of generally accepted accounting standards, a new branch of accounting-management accounting has gradually formed and developed. Early management accounting was mainly embodied in executive management accounting, focusing on standard cost, budget control and variance analysis. Since the 1950s, management accounting has gradually changed from a simple implementation management accounting stage to a modern management accounting stage with "decision and plan accounting" and "implementation accounting" as the main body and decision accounting as the main position. The separation of management accounting from the traditional single accounting system is the third milestone in the history of accounting development.

Another important development is the expansion of accounting research methods.

Before 1970s, standardized accounting research methods occupied a dominant position. Since 1970s, empirical accounting research began to appear, and gradually kept pace with traditional accounting research methods.

The organic combination of the two methods has gradually realized the idea of "practice-theory-re-practice", which is a kind of continuous scientific research idea, which not only ensures the logical consistency of the accounting theory system, but also makes the accounting theory tested in practice and avoids the embarrassment of "castles in the air"!