Some Observations on "Breakeven Budgeting and Programming to Goals"

Consider this proposition: that the whole of double-entry accounting may be a completely outmoded device on the a priori grounds that little of much importance has survived from medieval times in any other fields of human endeavour. It seems possible to argue that there are certain aspects of the system which would have appealed strongly to the medieval mind, irrespective of whether the model produced by double-entry accounting methods was entirely adequate for the quite limited purposes for which it was first conceived. An unshakeable conviction that the world they perceived was the creation of a supremely good and perfect Deity commonly led earlier scientists into attempts to fit observable nature into preconceived, regular, mathematical systems. An irregular pattern was felt to be inconsistent with the perfection of its Creator, and a system of accounting which appeared to demonstrate an opposite but equal element in every economic transaction would accord well with the accepted cosmology of the time. Nevertheless, whatever speculations one may entertain as to the soundness of the logical basis on which the system was built, it would be impossible to deny its viability as a solution to the problems facing the trading community of the time. A medieval business was a very different organization from its present-day counterpart; moreover the originators of double-entry conceived it for much more limited purposes than those for which it is currently employed. In a world in which planning and control were scarcely known, the medieval trader was anxious to find a system which would both test the honesty and accuracy of his clerks and ensure that outstanding items were not lost sight of. In short, accounting as we know it, has developed out of a primitive control