AND ACCOUNTING: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Accounting has evolved over thousands of years from record keeping systems designed to document to systems designed to mea- sure changes in economic activity. Similarly, the technology used to manage economic data has evolved from clay tokens and jars to punched card and computer systems. Throughout their development, changes in data processing technology and accounting frequently have been interrelated. Punched card and computer systems, in par- ticular, have led to significant changes in many of the data manage- ment and information system functions of accounting. Current ad- vances in information technology indicate that more profound changes may occur in the future. Insights into how information tech- nology may impact accounting can be gained by examining the his- torical relationship between data processing technology and account- ing. Archaeological evidence indicates that record keeping was an integral aspect of man's early economic activity. Record keeping in early societies was implemented through clay tokens and pictorial markings on clay tablets (Schmandt-Besserat, 1978, p. 52 and Green, 1989, p. 51-53). Today, records are main- tained on magnetic storage devices and processed on micropro- cessors made of silicon. Discussions of the evolution of account- ing generally stress the commercial and societal factors influ- encing its development. While attention to these factors is cru- cial to understanding the current state and possible future di- rections of the discipline, scant attention has been devoted to its data processing aspects. Because accounting is a data manage- ment function dependent upon information technology, the evo- lution of accounting reflects, in part, advancements in the meth- ods and methodology of data processing. During this century, the term "data processing" has become synonymous with the application of the computer. However, data processing was an integral aspect of accounting prior to

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