Galactic History

One day there was nothing. Then there was the accounting period assumption…

The accounting period assumption states that the life of a business should be divided into arbitrary time periods. This law was founded by the Coalition of Accountants (COA) after the First Galactic Accounting War. The COA defeated the Independent Accounting Systems (IAS) in a brutal and bloody conflict spanning for 50 years from 1020BBY to 970BBY. With this new found law brought in by the COA the galaxy accountants were at peace for another 500 years.

However due to accounts being overstated and understated unrest grew to tremendous levels among the galaxies accountants. In the year 423BBY one account overstated the profit of a business by $5,063. This caused thousands of accountants to rise up in anger and threw the galaxy once again into the turmoil it once dwelled in 500 years ago. The COA struggled to keep control of the peace they had established and eventually large scale rebellions came into play. Of the hundreds of rebellions, one was far greater and more powerful than the rest. The Galactic Accounting Union (GAU) was at the centre of power of these rebellions. After many skirmishes along the Border of Revenue the COA called a treaty with the GAU.

The high council of the COA and the clan leaders of the GAU met at the planet Debt, along the Border of Revenue in the year 421BBY to commence negotiations. But it was a trap! Whilst the large majority of the GAU fleet orbited Debt maintaining security for the GAU representatives, the COA found help from a once strong enemy, the IAS. With the GAU distracted, the IAS sent stealth ships deep into GAU territory. These stealth ships infiltrated the GAU’s archives on their capital planet, Income. Within the income archives, the IAS infiltrators wiped the basic templates for the GAU’s accounts. Without their templates, the GAU were no longer able to open basic spreadsheets ready for accounting. With this crippling blow, the GAU crumbled and surrendered to the COA.

To prevent this uprising happening again, the COA created their second peace law. This was the Law of Accrual Accounting. Accrual accounting recognises revenue when it is earned and expenses when they are incurred. A primitive rule that was designed by early accountants, which is still used today is that Assets equals Liabilities plus Owner’s Equity. The earliest recorded evidence of this was found 80,900BBY on a stone tablet which stated:   A=L+Oe, L=A-Oe & finally Oe=A-L.