Management Accounting Eras
First let’s look at some history. Figure 1 illustrates a
humorous but valid timeline of the shifts in accounting:
1. Ancient Era—Rocks and stone piles.
2. Medieval Era—Piles of precious metal and paper
money. This situation ultimately led to the book published in 1494 by Luca Pacioli, an Italian mathematician
and Franciscan friar, titled Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalità. It dealt with HinduArabic arithmetic and its offshoot, algebra, and contained
Pacioli’s 27-page treatise on Venetian accounting that
described double-entry bookkeeping.