What is Bookkeeping?

23 June, 2010 (13:46) | Uncategorized | By: Hot Harry

Bookkeeping is the recordkeeping of the money values of the function of a business. Bookkeeping gives the figures from which accounts are drafted but is a different process, prerequisite to accounting.

Basically, bookkeeping records two parts of information: (1) the current value, or equity, of an enterprise and (2) the changes in value—profit or loss—taking place in the enterprise over a particular time.

Management officials, investors, and credit grantors all demand this information: management to interpret the results of operations, to control costs, to budget for the future, and to make financial policy decisions; investors to analyse the upshot of business operations and make decisions regarding buying, holding, and selling securities; and credit grantors in order to regard the financial statements of an entity in finding whether to accept a loan.

Evidence of financial and numerical charts have been seen for just about every nation with a commercial backbone. Records of trade contracts were discovered in the archaelogical digs of Babylon, and accounts for both farms and estates have been held in ancient Greece and Rome. The dual-entry method of bookkeeping came with the progression of the commercial republics of Italy, and tutorial books for bookkeeping were developed in the 15th century in some Italian cities.

Within the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution granted a notable stimulus to accounting and bookkeeping.

The progression of manufacturing, trading, shipping, and subsidiary services made correct financial records a must-have. The history of bookkeeping, in fact, resembles closely the ancestry of commerce, industry, and government and, partially, helped in forming it. The international movement of industrial and commercial activity called for higher sophisticated decision-making processes, which in turn needed higher sophistication in the selection, classification, and presentation of information, even more so with the assistance of computers. Taxation and government regulation became more detailed and resulted in even greater requirement for information; business entities had to show available information to list with their income tax, payroll tax, sales tax, and other tax reports. Governmental agencies and educational and other nonprofit institutions also grew in size, and the need for bookkeeping for their inner departmental operations became higher.

Though bookkeeping processes can be very multifaceted, all are based on two styles of books used in the bookkeeping process—journals and ledgers. A journal has the daily transactions (sales, purchases, etcetera), and the ledger has the records of individual accounts. The daily records in the journals are put in the ledgers.

At the end of each month, by general practice, an income statement and a balance sheet are created from the trial balance posted within the ledger. The job of the income statement or profit-and-loss statement is to display an analysis of any changes that happen in the business equity as a result of the operations of the period. The balance sheet displays the financial position of the corporation at any particular date taken from assets, liabilities, and the ownership equity.

For information about MYOB bookkeeping brisbane or MYOB training brisbane, contact Stone Consulting. Stone Consulting also does bookkeeping in Redlands.

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