Origin, Evolution, Up-to-Dateness of Accountancy Principles Meanings in Italy

The need of having a rich document source and the consequent necessity of having suitable regulations relevant to the operating and spreading procedures of complex and heterogeneous accounting information, has drawn more and more the attention of enterprises and other categories interested in the enterprise events, over the different periods and historical contexts. If we take into account the different evolution phases of accounting information application procedures, we understand how these have changed from typically quantitative information, obtained through periodical statement, mostly valid for internal purposes, into the current need of providing a reliable, neutral and checkable information, addressed towards external purposes of the enterprise. The present work intends to express some considerations about the structural company evolution, as well as the different professional and legal interventions which have been carried out by academic, vocational and legislative organisations, aiming at providing the accountant practitioner with the proper tools able to favour the real application needs, in terms of acknowledgement, valuation and reproduction of enterprise events. Real ethical codes of self-regulation have been drawn up and put at the experts’ disposal in connection with the changing information needs. In particular, the first part of the following work deals with the historical origins of accounting principles and the second one deals with their conceiving.