Besides the double entry system, there are other systems that cannot be traced back to Paccioli.
Following the abrogation of the Accounting Directive in 1953, only HGB was required, which did not require a specific accounting system. The minimum requirements of an accounting are, according
to the judgment of the Federal Fiscal Court of 23.02.1951, Az. IV 15/51 S:
+ timely and orderly recording of all business transactions in one or more journals,
+ Control of receivables and liabilities with personal accounts or orderly document storage,
+ annual statements with stocktaking.
It is therefore sufficient if a profit and loss statement (P & L) can be drawn up from the journals and the balance sheet is based on an inventory on the reference date. A minimum level of
profit and loss would be a distinction between sales, cost of materials, personnel expenses, depreciation, overheads and interest. This information should be kept ready by the journals. Inventory
accounting could be used for the material expenditure, payroll accounting for personnel expenses, and asset accounting for depreciation. The remaining simple bookkeeping would then need to
capture sales, overheads and interest rates. It would be important that not only payments, but also unpaid bills are taken into account.
Single-Entry-Accounting provides small business opportunities to perform their duties with simple spreadsheet solutions.
The cameralistics is the accounting of the state. Deposits and payments for a specific purpose, previously determined in a budget, are recorded here. The technique of accounting for accounts
according to Paccioli is used for this, but no balance sheets are set up. Instead, the requirements of the budget, as decided by Parliament, will be entered in the revenue in debit and
expenditure in credit as the opening entry. Subsequently, current receipts in the credit and current expenses in the debit are posted to these accounts. At the end of the year, the remains are
returned to the Ministry of Finance.
The cameralistics is simple and complicated at the same time. It is complicated because a large number of accounts must be maintained with the multitude of uses. At the same time, it is simple
because many issues are not taken into account. Investments are taken into account as expenditure, but there is no control of the residual value and a consideration of the ongoing depreciation
loss. There is also a lack of consideration of future issues that have been caused in the past, e.g. Pensions. Cameralistics is therefore not a procedure that should be transferred to companies.
It also does not meet the minimum requirements for an accountancy, as they were formulated in Germany by the courts.
Also, the Revenue Surplus Calculation (EÜR) is not an accounting but records for non-accountable small businesses as a simplification process for taxable income determination. It has gained in
importance with the introduction of Sect. 241a HGB and the exemption of small individual merchants from the accounting obligation. As an attachment to the income tax return but still a three-page
form to fill in whose questions require a precise record of details. The question then arises as to whether computerized accounting would be simpler than the simplification procedure.
The EÜR is limited to the time of payment. This also opens up some design options. If, at the end of the year, the entrepreneur does not write any more invoices at the end of the year - of course
due to work overload - he will no longer have any operating income in December. After Christmas, he has time again and writes all the bills in a few days. The operating income then falls in
January and will be taxed only in the new year. He also has time after Christmas to pay all bills - even those not yet due. Thus all payments fall into the old year and are deducted there also in
the determination of the income. There are no stocks. The purchase of goods is immediately considered as an operating expense, even if all goods are still in stock at the end of the year.
But unlike in cameralistics, small business owners keep a record of their investment in the revenue surplus bill. They cannot immediately deduct the purchase of these items as business expenses
for tax purposes. These are distributed over the period of use and additionally deducted from the income as depreciation. Therefore, this method is suitable for small businesses, a profitability
control or the evaluation of products with a cost accounting is not provided here. So here is a trade-off between making work easier and better information.