Sunday, May 20, 2012

The Florentine vs the Venetian approach to reporting

The Florentine Approach is the introduction of double-entry bookkeeping system.

It was in the 14th century when Amanito Manucci, a partner of merchant partnership, created a recording system where there's at least one account debited and one account credited and where the total of debits equals the total of credits. Notice that this system of recording is the system of double-entry bookkeeping. Thus, Manucci was tagged as the inventor of double-entry bookkeeping. It was said that Amanito Manucci called Giovanni Farolfe & Company in Florence, introduced the Florentine Approach.

The records kept by Mannuci for the firm are the oldest evidence that demonstrated or reflected the use of double-entry bookkeeping system.  

In Venetian Approach of reporting, the merchants are described as they kept their records in bilateral form (alla veneziana), where the debits are recorded on the left side of the page across the credits.  This method is further described as an evolved system, using several books which are carefully cross-indexed and coordinated so that the contents are viewed in a coherent whole. Observed that this approach is the so-called ledger postings in our time. 

The Venetian Method was introduced in the books of the merchant Andrea Bargarigo (1418-1449).

Luca Pacioli (1445-1517), the father of modern accounting, published in 1494 the Venetian method in his book entitled Summa de Arithmetica. Pacioli explained the use of books (of accounts).  It was described that the each transaction was first noted in the memorandum book then listed the transaction in debit and credit form in the journal, and finally posted the entries in the ledger. 

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