Professional Accountants

Professional Accountants

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In the modern business world, many people aspire to be accountants. An accountant refers to a practitioner of accounting who helps in measuring, provision of assurance, and disclosure about financial information that assist managers, tax authorities, and investors make crucial decisions about allocation of resources and investment opportunities. Therefore, an accountant is a qualified person specially trained in bookkeeping and in analysis, auditing, and preparation of accounts.

The profession has a long history of development unlike other professions. Its evolution is usually based on the invention and dissemination of the double entry bookkeeping procedure. Luca Pacioli is regarded to be the father of the accounting profession because he made significant contributions towards its evolution. Many people argue that accountancy developed to respond to the needs of the earlier times brought about by the changes in the societal demands and the environment. Others assert that the development of the accounting science has driven the evolution of the profession. The history of accounting sheds light on the economic and business history by helping it flourish, grow, and respond to the needs of the owners and the public in general (Brown, 2014).

Accounting records dates back more than seven thousand years ago in Mesopotamia. Very old documents in Mesopotamia indicate lists of goods and expenditures received and traded. The development of the accounting profession came along with that of money and numbers, mostly related to the trading and taxation activities of the temples. In 1904, about fifty years after the emergence of the formal profession, around six thousand practitioners carried the title of being chartered accountants. In 1957, there were almost 40,000 chartered and fully incorporated accountants from Britain, Scotland, and Ireland. Now, England and Wales have a membership of...