A Review of Bookkeeping and Accounting in 1945

A 1945 Vocational Guidance Film on Bookkeeping and Accounting is available for viewing online at the SEC Historical Society website. This entertaining 10-minute video was provided by courtesy of the Prelinger Archives, United States Library of Congress. It discusses a variety of matters including the household budget book, business bookkeeping, the role of the bookkeeper compared to that of the accountant, an accounting department, calculating and bookkeeping machines, cost accounting, special investigations, preparing tax returns and business principles. It also distinguishes a private accountant from a public accountant (such as a CPA) who should have a pleasing personality, a strong moral character and legible handwriting.

 

The Accountant Who Changed the World

The birth of accounting rocked the world 500 years ago. In the 1400s, much of Europe was still using Roman numerals and finding it really hard to easily add or subtract. Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) started catching on and' with those numbers, merchants in Venice developed a revolutionary system we now call “double-entry” bookkeeping.

Every transaction gets entered twice in financial records. If one day, you sold three gold coins' worth of pepper, you would write that the amount of cash you had went up by three gold coins. You would also write in that the amount of pepper you had went down by three gold coins' worth. Before double-entry, people just kept diaries and counted their money at the end of the day. This innovation allowed merchants to see every aspect of their business in neat little rows.

Luca Pacioli was a monk, magician and lover of numbers. He discovered this bookkeeping in Venice. In 1494, he wrote a huge math encyclopedia and included an instructional section on double-entry bookkeeping. Thanks to the new printing press, his book was mass produced and became a hit. One of the first readers was Leonardo da Vinci, who at the time was painting The Last Supper. Pacioli’s encyclopedia covered the mathematics of perspective painting which fascinated da Vinci.

Read the article “The Accountant Who Changed the World” and listen to the full story (about 5 minutes) at NPR online.