BRANCH ACCOUNTING: EVIDENCE FROM THE ACCOUNTING RECORDS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN MORAVIANS

Europeans transported continental accounting practices during the period of worldwide colonization. This paper describes the transportation of branch accounting by members of the Moravian Church. Physical records maintained in the Archives for the Southern Province of the Moravian Church at Salem, North Carolina, and for the Northern Province at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, contain a complex, two-tiered system of branch accounting for the enterprises within the settlements and the settlements within the worldwide Church. This paper traces recorded activity for 1775 from an enterprise to its diacony (business organization of a church) and from the diacony to the European Church headquarters. Reporting practices in both North American diaconies reflect a similar practice of branch accounting, each culminating in formal financial statements to the European "home office" of the Moravian Church.