ABSTRACT
The majority of records of enterprise throughout the world is in writing and conforms to international standards and agreed ways of conducting business, even though cultural differences persist, which reflect different record keeping and information seeking traditions. In written cultures the document that underpins the keeping of business records is the record of the transaction, usually recorded on a single sheet of paper and, at least in Europe, from the thirteenth century, if not earlier, referred to as the docquet. The practice of docqueting and pigeon-holing by the mid-nineteenth century was synonymous with bureaucracy and red-tape. The core record series of the double entry system were originally the waste books and journals and the ledgers. The information on the docquets was originally entered or registered in the waste books in much the same way as in the single entry system. Just like journals, ledgers could also be subdivided into private, purchase, sales, nominal, impersonal and personal ledgers and so on.
