Here are some surprising, strange and unusual facts about accountancy…
- Franciscan friar Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli is known has the father of accounting, although double entry had been around for centuries, he was the first to write a book on it (27 pages).
- It was FBI accountants that brought down Al Capone in 1931, FBI now employees 1,400 Accountants as Special Agents
- Mick Jagger and Janet Jackson trained as accountants before becoming singers
- 60% of taxpayer hire an accountant to help them do their tax returns
- Bookkeeper and Bookkeeping are the only word in the English Language to have 3 consecutive double letters
- Monty Python frequently poked fun at the accounting profession. One possible reason for their targeting of the accounting profession is that John Cleese’s father wanted him to become an accountant. He was to work for Grace, Derbyshire and Todd Chartered Accountants on Whiteladies Rd, Bristol. (strange accounting facts)
- J. P. Morgan got his first Wall Street job as a junior accountant. Five years later he founded his own company.
- Erin Brady who won Miss USA 2013 is an accountant.
- St Matthew the Evangelist, author of the first of the Gospels, is the patron saint of accountants. He is also the patron saint of tax collectors, bookkeepers, stock brokers and bankers.
- Compter was the original word of accounting. It was a derived from a French language.
steve@bicknells.net
