Define accounting and state its objective
Answers
Accounting is a process of identifying the events of financial nature, recording them in the journal, classifying in their respective accounts and summarising them in profit and loss account and balance sheet and communicating results to users of such information, viz. owner, government, creditor, investors, etc.
According to American Institute of Certified Accountants, 1941, “Accounting is the art of recording, classifying and summarising in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events that are, in part at least, of financial character and interpreting the results thereof.”
In 1970, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants changed the definition and stated, “The function of accounting is to provide quantitative information, primarily financial in nature, about economic entities, that is intended to be useful in making economic decisions.”
Objectives of Accounting:
1. Recording business transactions systematically− It is necessary to maintain systematic records of every business transaction, as it is beyond human capacities to remember such large number of transactions. Skipping the record of any one of the transactions may lead to erroneous and faulty results.
2. Determining profit earned or loss incurred− In order to determine the net result at the end of an accounting period, we need to calculate profit or loss. For this purpose trading and profit and loss account are prepared. It gives information regarding how much of goods have been purchased and sold, expenses incurred and amount earned during a year