The practice of accounting came into existence many years ago though, there was no acceptable definite record as to when accounting developed.  It should be noted that with the advent of colonial rule in Africa, the European system of accounting was introduced in most of the African countries such as Nigeria.  Then, different kinds of people were employed to take care of farms and properties of the Whitman and after that, they have to account for their success so far to their masters because there is a saying that “for every responsibility, there is a saying that “for every responsible, there is always an accountability”.

So if the origin of accounting system is to be trace, if should start from the time people started giving accounts they used in those days cannot be or is not the same as the method we use in this our modern days but can be seen as a base for the modern days account system.

Many definitions have been put forward by various authors of the subject and all seems to have the same meaning.  One of such definitions is that by the American Accounting Association which defined Accounting as “a process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information to permit informed judgements and decisions by the users of such.

However, the definition could be extended by seeing accounting as “the art of recording, classifying and summarizing, analysing, interpreting and reporting on the financial transactions and position of an organization to interested persons”.  From the definition, it can be observed that all accounting activities involve the use of documentation.

Companies, organizations, institutions and other establishments require the services of accounting information to understand what is going on n the numerous branches, to educate the effectiveness of companies policies on operation and impact of government’s fiscal and monetary instruments.

Accounting information also helps potential investors to put their investments into optimal uses by providing adequate feasibility reports to guide  would be investors.

Now, let us look at the need for accounting information in an organization like Hotels, you will find out that it helps in revealing the amount of profit or loss made and it also deterines the true financial position of the hotel.

Accounting information also helps in dealing on the type of labour to be acquired and the amount to be paid to labourers as their salaries and wages.  It also helps in providing a guide to future policy.  This then leads to the necessity for accounting as underlined by the existence of an accounting department in any organization.