What is Accounting?

Accounting can be defined as follows:

Accounting is the art of recording, summarizing, reporting, and analyzing financial transactions.
[American Institute of Certified Public Accountant]

Accounting is a service activity which provides financial quantitative information about economic entity that can be useful in decision making.
[American Principle Board]

Accounting is the process of keeping track of the changes a user implemented in a computing system.
[techFAQ]

Accountancy or accounting is the system of recording, verifying, and reporting of the value of assets, liabilities, income, and expenses in the books of account (ledger) to which debit and credit entries (recognizing transactions) are chronologically posted to record changes in value
[Wikipedia]

Quite simply, accounting is a language: a language that provides information about the financial position of an organization. When you study accounting you are essentially learning this specialized language. By learning this language you can communicate and understand the financial operations of any and all types of organizations.
[MoneyInstructor]

Accountancy (profession) or accounting (methodology) is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and other decision makers make resource allocation decisions.
[School of Business Administration]

To put it simply, accounting is about keeping track of the money. Accounting is how businesses monitor income, expenses, and assets over a given period of time. Accounting often is referred to as "the language of business" because of its role in maintaining and processing all relevant financial information that an entity or company requires for its managing and reporting purposes. Accounting is a field of specialization critical to the functioning of all types of organizations.

Accounting is also a body of principles and conventions, as well as an established general process for capturing financial information related to an organization’s resources. Accounting is a service function that provides information of value to all operating units and to other service functions, such as the headquarters offices of a large corporation.
[TopAccountingDegrees]

Accounting refers to the practice of tracking a business's income and expenses and using those figures to evaluate its financial status.
[allbusiness]