‘Debits and credits’ is a financial transaction classification system that was first used by the Venetian merchants in Italy in the 15th century. While it was widely used by the Venetian merchants, its took a mathematician by the name of Luca Pacioli to document and publish this system in a book.
The book Luca wrote to codify the Venetian method of bookkeeping in 1494 was one of the first published by Gutenberg on his innovative printing press. Today Luca is revered widely as ‘The father of accounting’ . Luca’s book explained the whole bookkeeping system of which Debits and Credits were a key part. The overall system that he documented has come to be known as the “Double- entry bookkeeping” system. Now while this system was developed over 500 years ago, its principles and processes are still followed by today’s accountants and bookkeepers the world over.
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