A review of the historical developments of accounting and its relevance to contemporary societies

Abstract

This paper reviews the development of accounting as a profession and how this development is relevant in contemporary times that the contemporary organization leader could apply for better results in term of application and teaching. The paper provides conceptual definitions of accounting profession and accounting history, global perspectives of historical developments ranging from medieval times to modern day development of accounting, in African context as well as evolution in Nigeria. In doing this the paper discovered that accounting has evolved over the years and based on the activities that characterized the era, thus historical development study is essential to at least know which direction accounting will tilt to at any given time or age. With this, researcher as well as philosophers will continue to refer to historical development of account, to least see if they can proffer solution to accounting problems that may emerge.