3.6. Using Accounting Software
It would be possible, though not very likely, that a very small business would keep its books the old-fashioned way — record all transactions and do all the other steps of the bookkeeping cycle with pen and paper and by making handwritten entries. However, even a small business has a relatively large number of transactions that have to be recorded in journals and accounts, to say nothing about the end-of-period steps in the bookkeeping cycle (refer to Figure 3-1).
When mainframe computers were introduced in the 1950s and 1960s, one of their very first uses was for accounting chores. However, only large businesses could afford these electronic behemoths. Smaller businesses didn't use computers for their accounting until some years after personal computers came along in the 1980s. But, as the saying goes, "We've come a long way, baby." A bewildering array of accounting computer software packages is available today.
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