 | This article is within the scope of WikiProject Business, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Business on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. | |  C | This article has been rated as C-Class on the project's quality scale. | | Top | This article has been rated as Top-priority on the project's priority scale. | | | This article is supported by the Accountancy task force. | | Comments: | | edit · history · watch · purge Your articles, such as this one would be much more useful to more people if they contained references to texts.209.173.38.37 (talk) 18:00, 5 April 2009 (UTC) | | | |  | This article is within the scope of WikiProject Finance, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles related to Finance on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. | | | C | This article has been rated as C-Class on the project's quality scale. | | Top | This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. | | Comments: | | edit · history · watch · purge Your articles, such as this one would be much more useful to more people if they contained references to texts.209.173.38.37 (talk) 18:00, 5 April 2009 (UTC) | | | | |  | Accountancy is included in the Wikipedia for Schools, see Accountancy at Schools Wikipedia. Please maintain high quality standards; if you are an established editor your last version in the article history may be used so please don't leave the article with unresolved issues, and make an extra effort to include free images, because non-free images cannot be used on the DVDs. | | [edit] Invitation to participate in the Accountancy Task Force If you are interested in working in collaboration with Wikipedia members on improving the article Accountancy, you will be pleased to hear that the Accountancy task force has been set up and is seeking participants who can assist with the article's overhaul. Perhaps you would like to provide verifiable content on this subject matter, in which case your input could be invaluable. Alternatively we are also seeking participants who can help with the systematic sorting of related accountancy articles into meaningful categories, an activity that does not require undertaking research but will nonetheless help improve the quality of the article's links. Either way, the task force would like to hear from you! --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 14:31, 24 March 2009 (UTC) [edit] Less common term used? Why is the less common term 'accountancy' used rather than the more common 'accounting'? Google is usually a suitable metric of common usage and accounting is used twice as often worldwide, than the term accountancy. A simple search shows 11,800,000 hits for accountancy and 23,400,000 for accounting. A British variant that is less common should be noted, but not presumed to be the right way over the more common form.JascalX (talk) 17:15, 18 April 2009 (UTC) - The difference between accounting and accountancy is probably to do with the evolution of the subject. In the same way bookkeeping evolved from record keeping, and accounting evolved from bookkeeping, accountancy as we know it today has evolved from accounting. I can't cite any sources to back this up at the moment, so this is just my view.
As regards the view that accountancy is a British variant of word accounting, I do not have any sources to support or disprove this view, but I can tell you that one of the the first magazines published by a professional accounting organsiation is the Journal of Accountancy which was first published in the US in 1905. This suggests to me that the term accountancy may well of orginated in the US, rather than the UK. If you can cite sources to support or disprove any of these points, your research efforts would be most welcome. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 23:46, 18 April 2009 (UTC) - Thank you for the response Gavin. I looked around the various dictionaries online and found that 3 of the 5 listed it as a British variant, two did not specify and one of the two non-specific listed the origin year as 1859. Etymology aside, I do not believe the term is very common outside the UK or former UK Commonwealth and appears to not be the more common term worldwide. This is based on simple search engine hits using each term alone or in combination with related termsJascalX (talk) 03:00, 19 April 2009 (UTC).
- Strange, I came to a different conclusion. As you know, the Journal of Accountancy is published by American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and although I am not familiar with how they rank relative in terms of profession associations, their membership seems reasonably large and their history goes back quite a while[1]. I would conclude from this evidence that the term accountancy is used often in the US, even if only amoung memembers of the profession. However, from what little I have read in accademic papers[2][3] and books[4], the term accountancy is used in the US quite often, and even some accademic departments use the term in their name & courses too[5]. You might be right about accountancy being a British origin, but then again you might be wrong, for it is the Merriman-Webster online dictionary that suggests the origin of the word dates back to 1859[6]. It is interesting that an American dictionary should know this. Perhaps the word accountancy is American after all? Only further research will reveal this. Overall, I disagree with your conclusion that it is a term used only in the UK. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 22:14, 19 April 2009 (UTC)
- Leaving aside the question of history, it seems clear that "accountancy" is a narrower and less commonly used term than "accounting". "Accountancy" refers much more specifically to the profession, and not to the whole field, which involves economics and statistics as well as accountancy in the professional sense. A change of name would be desirable.JQ (talk) 08:44, 2 May 2009 (UTC)
- The evidence I have cited suggests otherwise. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 10:08, 2 May 2009 (UTC)
- Could you spell this evidence out? You've shown that the term "accountancy" may not be UK-specific, but your own comments such as "used quite often, and even [by] some academic departments" support the view that "accounting" is more standard. Most of the subcategories of Category:Accountancy use "accounting" in their names, and many would make little sense otherwise.JQ (talk) 20:17, 2 May 2009 (UTC)
- I have no evidence to demonstrate which term is "standard". But if you can come up with a source that says accounting is the standard term, then please let us know. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 08:31, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
- Just a few interesting tidbits. The Wikipedia article traffic statistics for April 2009 stated that Accounting was visited 54,746 times during the month (link) while Accountancy had 22,230 visits (link). This would lead me to believe that the majority of readers are typing in accounting, and being redirected to the accountancy page. In addition, a portion of the 22,230 visits could be attributed to links from templates, other articles, etc. (of course the same could be said that some articles are still linking to accounting instead of accountancy). I'm not arguing for either term, but just thought I'd point this out if it assists in the decision of moving back or not. (As a side note, my degree says Accounting on it). --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 09:24, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
- More similar evidence. "accounting discipline" gets about 20 000 ghits, "accountancy discipline" <1000. A Google search for dictionary+accountancy produces, as its top hits nearly all refs to "dictionary of accounting" and similar. The first I can find ofr "accountancy" refers to "the art or practice of an accountant" which sounds about right to me. That is, "accountancy" refers very narrowly to the job/profession, and "accounting" covers all aspects of the field.JQ (talk) 09:45, 3 May 2009 (UTC)
- Outside the dictionary reference, we don't have very much in the way of sources for this term. Accountancy may be a term that refers to a methodology, a body of learning, profession depending on how it is used. Books such as the History of Accountancy in the USA [7] suggest that it is used in both the US and the UK. However the real question is what is the difference between "Accountancy" and "Accounting"? I still cannot answer this fundamental question but I have found a suitable definition for accountancy:
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- "Accountancy is the art of communicating financial information about a business entity to users such as shareholders and managers. The communication is generally in the form of financial statements that show in money terms that show the economic reources under the control of management. The art lies in selecting the information that is relevant to the user and is reliable."
- Taken from "Financial accounting and reporting" (Elliot, Barry & Elliot, Jamie, FT Prentice Hall, London 2004, p.3), quoted in Corporate Reporting and Company Law By Charlotte Villiers. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 09:38, 12 May 2009 (UTC)
[edit] Practioners of Accountancy I have elimated the paragraph on "Practioners of Accountancy", which seems to be comprised of original research. To replace it[8], I have inserted a paragraph on the origin of the term Accountant (citing Francis William Pixely, admittedly an old source), which I feel provides more encyclopedic coverage of the subject of this article compared with a random selection from the List of accountancy bodies. --Gavin Collins (talk) 15:44, 26 February 2009 (UTC) [edit] Standalone links I have removed all the random and arbitrary standalone links, both internal and external, that have until now blighted this article. In themeselves, they add nothing of encylopedic value to the article, since they are devoid of the commentary, context, criticism or analysis on their own. Standalone external links to commercial websites that are not used as the basis for citation should be removed as soon as they are added, as they are likely to in contravention of WP:SPAM. Standalone internal links should also be removed, as there is an extensive web of links to other topics are already contained in the body of the article itself. Standalone links are not necessary, as this article forms part of an extensive web of categories (see WP:CATEGORY for more information). Stand alone links are not appropriate in accordance with Wikipedia's policy on internal links (see WP:LINKFARM) Such links may be more appropriate in sub-topics of Accountancy. For a list of sub-topics, follow the link to Category:Accountancy at the bottom of this page, or use the search tool by inserting Category:Accountancy. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 08:34, 13 March 2009 (UTC) OK...but now the article is not an article about accountancy anymore...it's just the history of accountancy with a section on Enron. Surely, at the very least, this article should be a signpost to other related articles? AnthonyUK (talk) 09:59, 15 March 2009 (UTC) - My view is that signposting to other articles does not really add any encyclopedic content per se. If an accounting term is not mentioned in the body of the article, then that may indicate that there is a content gap, and that new content is needed. I agree with you that this article needs new content, but it needs to be sourced; simply adding links is not a substitute for this in my view. However, I think we do not want to go back to having a list of links to other articles just for the sake of it, as we don't want to turn this page into "List of accounting topics" (which is probably redundant given that all the articles listed in it are all categorised) nor a WP:LINKFARM. The other problem related to having lists of links is that it encourages futher but unrelated links to be added, which blights the article by placing undue weight on other topics. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 10:34, 15 March 2009 (UTC)
[edit] Accountancy .,is accountancy a good course!?., is it hard!?., or not?., what are the things involve in accounting!?., —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.54.67.90 (talk) 04:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC) - If you like math as a subject, you will like accountancy. --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 12:35, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
I updated the discussion on GAAP to be more world viewed. Previously it made it sound as though GAAP was in the US.Jaromhuff21 (talk) 18:42, 16 April 2009 (UTC) [edit] confusing defintion In the Document's head section Accounting has also been defined by the AICPA as "The art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of financial character, and interpreting the results thereof."[2] Is the quote badly written or incorrectly quoted? Slawkenbergius (talk) 23:54, 9 June 2009 (UTC) - It makes sense to me, but it maybe possible that you are right and its meaning is not clear because this definiton is used slightly out of context. Which part do you not understand? --Gavin Collins (talk|contribs) 11:32, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
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