Accounting
Accounts, journal entries, NAS and IFRS
Lessons: from zero to confident
Topics in order: start with the first lesson and read them one by one. 2 lessons
1Lesson 1 What is accounting: where does the word meaning «book holder» come from, and who needs this record-keeping?The first lesson of the course: what accounting is in plain words, which German word the Uzbek word «buxgalter» (accountant) comes from, what a notebook gives a café owner, and who has contributed to this field. For a reader who knows nothing yet.Start →Where did it all begin?
Is accounting older than writing? The story of clay tokens in Mesopotamia
Did people first learn to write or to keep accounts? According to a widely known theory, writing itself was born of the need to count grain and livestock. We trace the path from clay tokens to today's electronic documents.
5 November 2026From al-Khwarizmi to the Genoa ledger: how did accounting change in the Middle Ages?
Today's accounting rests on two things: convenient numerals and double-entry bookkeeping. Both took shape in the Middle Ages. Along this path there is also a scholar linked with the name of Khwarazm.
5 November 20261494: how did Luca Pacioli's book spread double-entry bookkeeping?
Pacioli did not invent double-entry bookkeeping, and he said so himself. Why, then, is he often called the "father of accounting"? The answer lies in one printed book.
5 November 2026The 20th century: how did accounting become an international language?
What does it take for an investor in Tokyo or London to understand the financial statements of a company in Tashkent? A short road map of the international standards that emerged in the 20th century and of the national NAS system.
5 November 2026From the abacus to artificial intelligence: what did accountants calculate with, and why did the abacus fall out of use?
Until quite recently the click of abacus beads could be heard in shops and offices. How did the arithmometer, the calculator, the first business computer and the spreadsheet come about? And why do we so rarely see an abacus today?
5 November 2026Where does the word "algorithm" come from, and who gave rise to it?
Every app on your phone and every calculation in accounting software works on the basis of an "algorithm". The word comes from the name of al-Khwarizmi, a scholar from Khwarazm. We look at how a person's name became a scientific term and how much Hindu-Arabic numerals eased calculation.
5 November 2026Central Asian scholars and the science of calculation: an overview
Al-Khwarizmi, al-Bukhari, al-Biruni, Ulugh Beg: four names, six centuries. What unites them, and what can today's accountant, finance professional or statistician take from them? A short map without exaggeration, based only on confirmed facts.
5 November 2026How was cost accounting born: from Wedgwood's pottery to the railways
Pacioli's ledger answered the question "how much money came in and went out". The Industrial Revolution posed a new question: "How much does a single item cost me?" We look at how the English potter Josiah Wedgwood and the American railway engineer Albert Fink sought an answer to this question.
5 November 2026From Pascal to Burroughs: what did mechanical calculating machines give the accountant?
The first famous calculating machine was built by the young Blaise Pascal to help his father, a tax collector. Later the machine learned to multiply, passed into the hands of insurers, acquired keys and began printing on paper tape. The road from Pascal to the electronic calculator and its main gift to accounting.
5 November 2026From the paper "spreadsheet" to Excel: how did the electronic spreadsheet change the accountant's work?
The word "spreadsheet" came from the accounting ledger: a paper sheet ruled into columns and rows moved onto the screen and began to calculate by itself. A Harvard student's idea, the rivalry between Lotus and Excel, famous formula errors and spreadsheets in the cloud.
6 November 2026Accounting without writing: how did the Inca Empire keep its accounts on knotted cords?
How did an empire with no writing keep track of its population, harvests and livestock? The answer: in coloured cords and the knots tied in them. Short key points about the Andean accounting device called the "quipu", and an example checked with a summary cord.
8 November 2026The Zenon papyri: how did the manager of a large estate in Egypt keep accounts 2 300 years ago?
At the beginning of the 20th century, local diggers in the Faiyum oasis in Egypt found an archive of more than two thousand papyri. These were the letters, contracts and accounting records of Zenon, an agent who managed a large estate in the 3rd century BC. Short key points and an example of the receipts and issues of a grain store.
9 November 2026From law to standard: how have Uzbekistan's accounting rules taken shape from 1996 to today?
An accountant's daily work rests on a two-tier set of rules: at the top, the Law "On Accounting", and beneath it, the national standards (NAS, BHMS). The Law was adopted in 1996 and issued in a new version in 2016, while the standards were renewed in several waves from 1998 to 2024. A table of dates, official documents and the rules by which to read an archived report.
10 November 2026One set of data, the whole company: how did ERP systems emerge, and how did they change accounting?
In the 1960s factories began calculating their raw material needs by computer, in 1972 five former IBM employees founded SAP, and in the early 1990s the term "ERP" appeared. Accounting turned from a separate program into part of the company's shared system. Short theses and a calculation of how much time reconciliation between separate programs takes.
10 November 2026Articles and briefs
All →Software has been purchased: should it be recorded as an intangible asset or expensed, and when does amortization start?
A freight company bought a route-planning program. If six requirements of NAS No. 7 are met at the same time, the program is recognized as an asset in account 0430; otherwise it is an expense. What goes into the initial cost and what does not, and why amortization starts not in the month of purchase but on the 1st day of the next month: one example, with a 60-month schedule.
12 November 2026Document and receipt: why is everything recorded?
The twelfth Basics lesson: at Qodir's shop a cash shortage turned up at the end of the day. What a document and a receipt are, why they are needed and how to find a missing entry, with a simple calculation.
11 November 2026How to liquidate a fixed asset: six stages from the commission to closing account 9210
An old steam boiler has broken down. Who inspects it, which certificate form is filled in, who approves it, when may it be cut up and how is the scrap metal taken into stock? Paragraphs 54–58 of NAS No. 5, three appendix forms and NAS No. 21 journal entries, using a cannery as the example.
11 November 2026Returnable containers and single-use packaging: on which account are containers kept, what happens if a deposit is not returned and where is the expense recorded?
A drinking water company gives 19-litre bottles to customers against a deposit and packs small bottles into cardboard boxes. Which packaging goes into cost and which into selling expenses, why a returned deposit is not income, and what happens to a bottle that does not come back: the example of one company under NAS No. 4 and NAS No. 21.
11 November 2026What are wages and how are they calculated?
The tenth Basics lesson: the pay of two workers at a car wash is calculated in two different ways. One by the number of cars washed, the other by the days worked. We see what wages mean for the worker and for the employer.
10 November 2026How are profit and loss calculated?
The sixth Basics lesson: two weeks of a watermelon seller, one ending in profit and the other in loss. We calculate how much is left from one watermelon and how a loss can be reduced.
10 November 2026Scissors, overalls, desk sets: when do tools, implements and household supplies become an expense, and why are they tracked again on off-balance sheet account 014?
A sewing workshop bought scissors, overalls for its staff and desk sets for the accounting office. They are not fixed assets, but they do not vanish in one go either. The criteria of NAS No. 4, writing off from account 1080 to expenses, control on off-balance sheet account 014 and write-off when items become unusable: a numerical example and journal entries.
10 November 2026Income and expenses: shown on a family and a shop
The fifth Basics lesson: where money comes from, where it goes and what is left at the end of the month. We put one family budget and the accounts of one bread shop side by side.
9 November 2026Filling in the balance sheet (Form 1) line by line: which account balance goes on each line?
All lines of the balance sheet under Appendix 1 to the Regulation approved by Order No. 181: line code, the accounts in brackets and a plain explanation for each. Where depreciation, amortisation, the trade markup and the allowance for doubtful debts are deducted, which formula gives each total line, and how the appendix on overdue debts is prepared. At the end, a balance sheet filled in from the account balances of a small furniture workshop.
9 November 2026If a buyer is given a discount after the sale: how does account 9050 work and how is revenue reduced?
A wholesale furniture company gave a shop a volume bonus at the end of the quarter and cut the price for scratched tables for another buyer. How both cases are recorded through 9050, how it is closed at the end of the month and what net revenue comes out in the statements.
9 November 2026Finished goods from receipt into the warehouse until sale: account 2810 and journal entries at actual cost
A carpet workshop accumulated costs throughout the month and at month-end delivered 300 carpets to the warehouse. How is the actual cost of one carpet obtained, how are a sale, an exhibition, office use and a shortage written off from 2810, and how is the variance allocated when records are kept at a standard price: a full calculation.
8 November 2026What is recorded in the books when a joint-stock company issues shares and buys back its own shares?
Issuing additional shares, receiving money from subscribers, a price above face value (8410 "Share premium"), issue costs (9630), buying back own shares (8610), reselling and cancelling them: journal entries using «Zarafshon Keramika» JSC as an example, based only on rows of NAS No. 21.
7 November 2026