What is accounting?Define it's objectives

Accounting can be defined, as the process of identifying, measuring, recording and communicating the required information relating to the economic events or an organisation to the interested users or such information.

The objectives of accounting are as follows :

1. To keep the Systematic Records of Business Transactions: The main objective of accounting is to keep the proper and systematic record of all business transactions. In other words, Accounting systematically records all financial transactions and events of the enterprise in the books of accounts. It classifies the recorded data under relevant accounts and summarises them into financial statements. Accounting is done to keep a systematic record of all financial transactions, assets and liabilities. The recorded information enables verifiability and acts as evidence.
2. To Calculate Profit or Loss: Another main objective of accounting is to ascertain the profit earned or loss sustained by a business during an accounting period. For this purpose, a statement called the income statement or the trading and profit and loss account is prepared at the end of each financial year. In this account, the revenue and the expenses incurred in the accounting period are recorded, and the comparison of the two shows whether the business has earned profit or incurred loss.
3. To Ascertain the Financial Position of business: Accounting also aims at ascertaining the financial position of the business by preparing a position statement called as balance sheet. Balance sheet is a systematic record of various assets and liabilities of the business on a particular date. It is like a screen picture of the financial position of the business showing its all the assets and liabilities.
4. To Provide Accounting Information to Its Users for Decision-making: Another important objective of accounting is to provide accounting information to its user. Users are generally of two types internal and external. Internal users include management, owners etc. and external users include creditors, investors, government etc. The accounting information is communicated in the form of reports, statements, graphs, charts, etc. to these users. This information helps them for financial planning and controlling.