Development and ClassificationAccounting must respond to society’s ever-changing informational needs and reflect the cultural, economic, legal, social, and political conditions within which it operates. The his- tory of accounting and accountants reveals continuing change. At first, accounting was little more than a recording system for certain banking services and tax-collection schemes. Double-entry bookkeeping systems were later developed to meet the needs of trading ventures. Industrialization and division of labor made cost-behavior analysis and managerial accounting possible. The rise of the modern corporation stimulated periodic financial reporting and auditing. In keeping with society’s increased concerns about the environment and about corporate integrity, accountants have found ways to measure and report environmental remediation liabilities and to uncover money laundering and other white-collar crimes. Accounting provides decision information for huge domestic and international public securities markets. It extends into management consulting and incor- porates ever-increasing information technology within its systems and procedures.Why should we want to know how and why accounting develops? The answer is the same as for developmental studies in other fields. We can better understand a nation’s accounting by knowing the underlying factors that have influenced its devel- opment. Accounting differs around the world, and knowledge of the developmental factors helps us see why. In other words, they can explain the observable differences as well as the similarities. Because accounting responds to its environment, different cul- tural, economic, legal, and political environments produce different accounting systems, and similar environments produce similar systems.This leads us to classification. Why should we classify (compare) national or regional financial accounting systems? Classification is fundamental to understanding and analyzing why and how national accounting systems differ. We can also analyze whether these systems are converging or diverging. The goal of classification is to group financial accounting systems according to their distinctive characteristics. Classifications reveal fundamental structures that group members have in common and that distinguish the various groups from each other. By identifying similarities and dif- ferences, our understanding of accounting systems is improved. Classifications are a way of viewing the world.
đang được dịch, vui lòng đợi..
![](//viimg.ilovetranslation.com/pic/loading_3.gif?v=b9814dd30c1d7c59_8619)