International Accounting Day is celebrated November 10 each year, the date Luca Pacioli, an Italian accountant and mathematician, published his book on double-entry bookkeeping in 1494. This is considered the first full written account of double-entry bookkeeping that changed the face of accounting and it’s still used today.

Luca Pacioli is considered the “Founding Father of Accounting”. The publisher Paganino Paganini released the first print editions of his book titled Summa de Arithmetica, Geometrica, Proportioni et Proportionalita. Say that three times. No, can you say it once? It translates to Summary of Arithmetic, Geometry, Proportions and Proportionality.  Yes, there was more in the book than the double-entry booking system.

The next celebration of International Accounting Day will be in 2024.

[a] While 1494 is widely documented, November 10th is not. Most all research we have found is simply repeating what others have written. While the exact date is uncertain, it’s widely publicized as such and, as with many other “historical facts”, November 10, 1494 is now considered the date of publication and the basis for International Accounting Day.