{"id":73,"date":"2018-04-16T18:45:46","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T18:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=73"},"modified":"2024-04-26T22:11:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T22:11:19","slug":"introduction-to-accounting","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/chapter\/introduction-to-accounting\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction to Accounting","rendered":"Introduction to Accounting"},"content":{"raw":"<h2>What you\u2019ll learn to do: define accounting<\/h2>\r\nWhat we think of as accounting can be divided into two distinct functions: bookkeeping, and accounting. The bookkeeping function, recording transactions, is as old as commerce itself, having arisen as a necessity of recording for taxes, business, and investments. In fact, Luca Pacioli, and Italian mathematician who collaborated with\u00a0Leonardo da Vinci,\u00a0mentions double entry booking in his 1494 \u201cSumma de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita.\u201d\r\n\r\nAs the world of business grew and expanded, so did the complexity and variety of accounting practices, and so did the opportunity for profits and losses for investors. Today, accounting is the application of theoretical principles to the books and records of the company in order to produce useful information for decision-making, by following, in the U.S., Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).\r\n\r\nIn this section, we\u2019ll define accounting, examine the financial standards, and describe the importance of ethics in accounting.\r\n\r\n<img class=\"aligncenter wp-image-912 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2985\/2018\/04\/20220408\/Pathways.jpg\" alt=\"A diagram representing flow from economic activity to shades of gray to accounting judgements to useful information to good decisions to a prosperous society.\" width=\"665\" height=\"994\" \/>","rendered":"<h2>What you\u2019ll learn to do: define accounting<\/h2>\n<p>What we think of as accounting can be divided into two distinct functions: bookkeeping, and accounting. The bookkeeping function, recording transactions, is as old as commerce itself, having arisen as a necessity of recording for taxes, business, and investments. In fact, Luca Pacioli, and Italian mathematician who collaborated with\u00a0Leonardo da Vinci,\u00a0mentions double entry booking in his 1494 \u201cSumma de Arithmetica, Geometria, Proportioni et Proportionalita.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the world of business grew and expanded, so did the complexity and variety of accounting practices, and so did the opportunity for profits and losses for investors. Today, accounting is the application of theoretical principles to the books and records of the company in order to produce useful information for decision-making, by following, in the U.S., Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).<\/p>\n<p>In this section, we\u2019ll define accounting, examine the financial standards, and describe the importance of ethics in accounting.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-912 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2985\/2018\/04\/20220408\/Pathways.jpg\" alt=\"A diagram representing flow from economic activity to shades of gray to accounting judgements to useful information to good decisions to a prosperous society.\" width=\"665\" height=\"994\" \/><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-73\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Introduction to Accounting. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Joe Cooke. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Specific attribution<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Pathways Vision Model. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Provided by American Accounting Association. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/aaahq.org\/portals\/0\/images\/misc\/Pathways-THIS-IS-ACCOUNTING_AAA_AICPA_branded_20160613.jpg\">http:\/\/aaahq.org\/portals\/0\/images\/misc\/Pathways-THIS-IS-ACCOUNTING_AAA_AICPA_branded_20160613.jpg<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\">CC BY-ND: Attribution-NoDerivatives<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":62559,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc-attribution\",\"description\":\"Pathways Vision Model\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Provided by American Accounting Association\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/aaahq.org\/portals\/0\/images\/misc\/Pathways-THIS-IS-ACCOUNTING_AAA_AICPA_branded_20160613.jpg\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Introduction to Accounting\",\"author\":\"Joe Cooke\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"5906e675-8fd3-41e0-8cba-93cd055476d2","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-73","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":28,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62559"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4010,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/73\/revisions\/4010"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/28"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/73\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-accountingformanagers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}